Dick Durbin: What is Africa to Me?

Dick Durbin

Download Senator Dick Durbin: What is Africa to Me? (6:26)

Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Springfield, is the 47th U.S. Senator from the State of Illinois and the first Illinois senator to serve on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee in more than a quarter of a century. He is the state’s senior senator and convenor of the bipartisan Illinois delegation. Durbin was elected to the U.S. Senate on November 5, 1996 and re-elected in 2002.

Senator Dick Durbin was elected by his fellow Democratic senators in December 2006 to the post of Assistant Majority Leader, also known as Majority Whip. It is the Senate’s second highest ranking position. In 2004, Durbin was elected as Minority Whip. Durbin’s election to leadership marked only the fifth time in history that an Illinois senator has served as a Senate leader. In 2001, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) appointed Durbin to the Senate’s leadership team, Assistant Democratic Floor Leader.

In 2000, Durbin served as Co-Chairman of the Democratic Platform Committee and also was Co-Chairman of the Atlantic Conference sponsored by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. He is a founding member of the Senate Global AIDS Caucus.