From U.S. Senator Dick Durbin:

Durbin, Duckworth Meet With Illinois State Association of Counties

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) yesterday met with representatives from the Illinois State Association of Counties to discuss the impact of the Trump Administration’s funding freeze on Illinois. 

McHenry County Board Chairman Mike Buehler was in attendance as were (Algonquin Village President Debbie Sosine, Peter Austin and Alicia Shueller.

During this meeting, Durbin and Duckworth heard directly from county leaders about affected transportation and infrastructure projects. 

Last week, Durbin and Duckworth joined Illinois leaders to send a letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought demanding the release of the approximately $1.88 billion in funding being illegally withheld from Illinois taxpayers despite the funding being appropriated by Congress and the U.S. courts intervening with the freeze.

The Senators and county leaders also spoke about House Republicans’ proposed $880 billion in Medicaid cuts to compensate for President Trump’s tax cut for billionaires. 

If congressional Republicans pass these Medicaid cuts, 3.4 million Illinoisans on Medicaid, including nearly 1.5 million children, could lose access to critical health care. 

“The decisions made in the White House and on Capitol Hill have real impacts in Illinois.  The President’s decision to freeze promised federal funds to Illinois is jeopardizing critical transportation and infrastructure projects in Illinois, further harming our economy and threatening Illinoisans’ jobs.  Meanwhile, congressional Republicans are scheming to cut health care for 3.4 million Illinoisans on Medicaid to give tax breaks to billionaires,” Durbin said.  “Senator Duckworth and I heard directly from members of the Illinois State Association of Counties about the impacts they’re seeing in their home counties.”

“Whether it’s illegally freezing funds or backing a bill to gut Medicaid, Trump is hurting the same families he swore to protect by jeopardizing programs they rely on,” Duckworth said. 

“Worse yet, Republicans are planning to put Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on the chopping block in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.  I’m glad I had the chance to meet with the leaders of the Illinois State Association of Counties alongside Senator Durbin to discuss how Trump’s chaos is impacting communities across Illinois. We’ll keep pushing back and sticking up for families.”

Counties represented at the meeting included:

• Cook County
• Kane County
• Lake County
• McHenry County
• Peoria County
• Stephenson County
• Will County