In the News

The entire Illinois Congressional Delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission chairman and board urging them to improve the nation's broadband maps.

The delegation asked Chairman Ajit Pai and the four FCC commissioners to reform the mapping process for broadband services, according to a news release from the group. Those who signed onto the letter included local members of Congress like Reps. Bill Foster, Adam Kinzinger, Dan Lipinski and Lauren Underwood.

U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville called his vote for a bill to provide legal status for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children one of his proudest moments in Congress.

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM, Act was originally filed by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, in 2001, but has never been passed, although it's been brought up multiple times in subsequent congressional sessions.

WASHINGTON — The House on Tuesday approved a measure to offer legal protections to "Dreamers" and others — youths brought to the U.S. illegally through no fault of their own — with bills authored by Democrats stalled because of a blockade in the GOP-run Senate.

The Senate is a "legislative black hole," Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., a physicist, told me.

"The Senate has become an empty chamber, a legislative graveyard," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on the Senate floor hours before the House vote, throwing darts at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

U.S. Rep. Bill Foster will serve as chairman of a newly created task force that will probe how artificial intelligence is affecting how consumers interact with and use financial services.

The Naperville Democrat and particle physicist was named to head the group by Rep. Maxine Waters, who chairs the House Committee on Financial Services.

The United States needs to develop a workforce that is adaptable and flexible enough to remain competitive in a global market, panelists told a Naperville audience gathered Monday at North Central College.

Hosted by U.S. Reps. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, and Sean Casten, D-Downers Grove, the discussion on the future of work and education was held at the college's Wentz Science Center in Naperville. Foster and Casten share portions of the college campus in their respective districts.

U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, announced he was introducing legislation to simplify tax filing. His bill, H.R. 2304, the Autofill Act of 2019, would create a voluntary tax filing program to allow individuals to use a secure IRS website to download a tax form automatically populated with information the IRS already collects from employers, the Social Security Administration and financial institutions, according to a news release.

U.S. Rep. Bill Foster appeared encouraged last week by comments made by Dr. Anthony Fauci about the coming availability of widespread COVID-19 antibody testing being deployed.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said last week a large number of such tests will soon be available, according to a statement. These tests are used to detect antibodies in someone who was likely exposed to the novel coronavirus and had already recovered. A detection of antibodies means that person could be protected from getting sick again.

A new bill that would require a national mandatory three-day waiting period when buying a gun could help save lives from gun violence and suicide, a Harvard Business School professor said at a roundtable discussion on gun safety in Aurora.

The study, authored by Harvard professor Deepak Malhotra, Michael Luca and Christopher Poliquin, found that handgun waiting periods reduce gun homicides by 17% and gun suicides by 10%.