Illinois Senator Dick Durbin says he hopes to take over a top spot in a key committee after a colleague is stepping down. According to the State Journal Register, Durbin said yesterday in Springfield that he hopes to become the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee now that Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has said she will not seek to keep that job in the next Congress.
Durbin was in Springfield yesterday for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a newly engineered and widened section of Archer Elevator Road on the city’s west end. Durbin becomes the senior ranking senator on the committee with Feinstein’s decision to step away. Durbin says that the committee has many important things to do in the next Congress including executive branch oversight, judicial appointments, and immigration and civil rights laws that are up for debate.
Republicans are currently in charge of the committee but it all could change if 2 Democrats win run off elections in the State of Georgia on January 5th over GOP incumbents. Durbin says that current Republicans on the committee have turned a blind eye to what he called abuses under the Trump Administration.
Durbin, who as whip is the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, has been on the Judiciary Committee for 22 years and said he is the most senior Democrat there who does not have the top spot on another committee.