Senator Dick Durbin On Avoiding The Shutdown And President Trump’s AG Nominee

The deadline to finalize an agreement over a southern border wall between the US and Mexico is fast approaching. And U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is one of the members of Congress trying to prevent another shutdown. We spoke with Senator Dick Durbin in his Washington D.C. office on Tuesday afternoon.

Senator Dick Durbin said he feels good about the tentative agreement reached between Democrats and Republicans to avoid another government shutdown this Friday.

Durbin said the deal, which includes more than one billion dollars for fences along the U.S.-Mexico border, has a good chance to pass the Senate and hopefully the House.

"We made concessions. There were parts of this I don’t like. That’s the nature of compromise and it’s inevitable when you have a Democratic House and a Republican Senate," he said. 

Speaking to the us in his office, Senator Durbin, the Minority Whip, said he hopes to get more than 67 votes in the Senate. That will send a message to President Trump that a veto, “doesn’t make any sense at all”.

In the interview Senator Durbin also discussed not just his new role on the Ag Committee but also what he misses most about Illinois when he’s in Washington. 

Just spoke to @SenatorDurbin about the funding agreement in principle between Dems and the GOP. "We made concessions. There were parts of this I don’t like. That’s the nature of compromise and it’s inevitable when you have a Democratic House and a Republican Senate."

— Niala Boodhoo (@NialaBoodhoo) February 12, 2019