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Senator Dick Durbin has been elected by his fellow Democratic senators every two years since 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.

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.

Elected to the U.S. Senate on November 5, 1996 and re-elected in 2002 and 2008, Durbin fills the seat left vacant by the retirement of his long-time friend and mentor, U.S. Senator Paul Simon.

Senator Durbin makes approximately 50 round trips a year between Washington and Illinois. He is married to Loretta Schaefer Durbin. They have three children and one grandchild. The Durbins reside in Springfield.

Improving Health Care- The author of landmark legislation to ban smoking on commercial airline flights, Durbin has worked in the Senate to protect children from the harm caused by tobacco. For his work, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Lung Association.

Recently, Durbin was an active participant in a 16-month debate about health insurance reform. With Durbin's help, Congress passed and the President signed into law landmark legislation to bring costs under control, extend access to affordable health insurance to those without insurance, make sure that folks have a fighting chance against insurance companies that turn them down when they need help the most, and make sure Medicare is strong for years to come.

Among his other health achievements, Durbin has worked successfully for increased federal funding to prevent childhood asthma, increase immunizations and expand medical research. He has successfully fought to increase the share of federal funding dedicated to combating AIDS worldwide. He has also been a leader in promoting organ and tissue donation. In the spring of 2004, Durbin put forth a plan to give small businesses affordable choices among private health insurance plans and expand access to coverage for their employees.

Protecting Consumers- Consumer protection is high on Durbin's list of priorities. Continuing an effort spurred by a meeting with the mother of a Chicago six-year-old who died after eating contaminated hamburger, Durbin led the effort to modernize the fragmented federal food safety system under a single food-safety agency. In 2009, he co-authored a bipartisan bill to strengthen the Food and Drug Administration's oversight of the domestic and foreign food supply.

Durbin also led the effort to ban ephedra, a dangerous product sold as a nutritional supplement and has introduced legislation to require manufacturers of other dietary supplements to ensure their products are safe before they are sold. He secured $2.8 million for the implementation of new safety standards to protect patients from injuries related to re-use of medical devices that are intended to be used only once.

Durbin also led the fight in 2008 to overhaul and modernize the Consumer Product Safety Commission -- nearly doubling its budget and expanding its enforcement capabilities to make toys and other products safer.

Working for Illinois- Throughout his years in Congress, Senator Durbin has worked hard to advocate the state's views on national issues while lobbying for federal support for local initiatives.