Duckworth Highlights 2024 Accomplishments in Year-End Round Up

December 30, 2024

Duckworth Highlights 2024 Accomplishments in Year-End Round Up

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - As 2024 comes to a close, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) highlighted several key accomplishments she secured over the last year:

"From helping almost 2,600 Illinoisans recover more than $11 million the Federal Government owed them to bringing home hundreds of millions of dollars to get the lead out of our children's drinking water, and from protecting IVF access for hopeful parents across the nation to helping make flying safer and more efficient for traveling Illinoisans and travelers with disabilities, I'm so proud of everything we've accomplished this year," Duckworth said. "It's a true honor to continue serving Illinoisans in the United States Senate and while I know the year ahead may look different than many of us hoped it would, I also know there's still much we can accomplish to help save working families money, end preventable gun violence, invest in communities that have been ignored for too long, advocate for Illinois on a global stage, support our troops while keeping the promises we've made to our Veterans as well as protect and defend our civil and reproductive rights-including guaranteeing access to IVF. I'm eager to get back to work on these goals and so many more for Illinois in 2025."

Over the past year, Duckworth and her office responded to nearly 900,000 emails and other messages as well as assisted more than 2,600 Illinoisans who were experiencing difficulties navigating the federal bureaucracy, helping recover more than $11.6 million in Social Security payments, Veterans' benefits, tax refunds and more. A select list of Duckworth's accomplishments from the past year is below.

Key Accomplishments:

Establishing the Springfield 1908 Race Riot Site as a National Monument: In August, Duckworth joined President Biden as he signed an official declaration to make the site of the 1908 Springfield Race Riot a national monument-a culmination of Duckworth's more than five years of work to make it happen. Duckworth began calling for national monument recognition in 2018, first introducing the Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument Act with U.S Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) in 2019. In October, Duckworth helped commemorate the designation of the site as a national monument in Springfield with other federal and local leaders.

Improving Aviation Safety, Growing Jobs And Protecting Travelers: As Chair of the Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations and Innovation, Duckworth helped author the bipartisan Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act of 2024, a landmark aviation safety law that includes a number of provisions she successfully championed to help improve safety for consumers, expand the aviation workforce and enhance protections and accessibility for travelers with disabilities. Over the past year, Duckworth also pushed to improve safety standards at Boeing and to help ensure FAA strictly and strongly oversees the manufacturer's production of passenger aircraft. Her efforts included urging the FAA to scrutinize Boeing's failures, enforce transparency and reject unsafe exemptions. In January, Duckworth's advocacy led Boeing to withdraw its unsafe petition asking the FAA to certify a new 737 MAX jet variant with a known-and unresolved-safety defect.

Securing Key NDAA Provisions to Strengthen Rock Island Arsenal, Support Families and Farmers in Illinois and Beyond: In the recently passed Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Duckworth secured provisions to help Illinoisans by expanding housing opportunities and surrounding infrastructure at Rock Island Arsenal, supporting school districts near Illinois military bases by helping alleviate state and local tax base funding shortfalls and expanding our military's use of sustainable aviation fuels, which supports our Illinois farmers, protects the environment and drives economy opportunity throughout the Midwest.

Bringing Home Significant Federal Investments: This year, Duckworth secured significant federal funding to drive innovation and improve infrastructure in Illinois. The University of Illinois's iFAB Hub was awarded $51 million in Tech Hub Phase II funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, positioning it as a national leader in biomanufacturing, creating jobs and transforming underutilized corn feedstocks into high-value products. Additionally, Chicago transportation infrastructure received over $305 million through the DOT Mega Program, including $209.8 million for the CREATE Program to enhance rail efficiency and safety and $95.6 million for the I-290/IL 171 Interchange Project to reduce congestion and flooding.

Delivering Clean Water and Replacing Lead Pipes: Thanks to Duckworth's Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act, which became law as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-Illinois received at least $214 million this year to get the lead out of our state's drinking water, helping improve water quality for families across the state and helping prevent lead poisoning. She also successfully secured several critical provisions for Illinois in the bipartisan Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2024, which recently passed the Senate and will head to President Biden's desk.

Helping Illinois Veteran Owned Small Businesses: Duckworth's Veteran Small Business Enhancement Act was signed into law in 2019 to help Veteran entrepreneurs acquire equipment-at little to no cost-that the federal government no longer has a use for but that can help them expand their small businesses. Duckworth's law is helping Veteran entrepreneurs across the country save money, grow their small businesses, create good-paying local jobs and increase economic opportunity throughout their communities. In Illinois alone, at least 98 Veteran-owned small businesses have taken advantage of the benefits of Senator Duckworth's law to acquire more than 11,000 items which were worth more than $38 million when originally purchased.

Lead Efforts to Improve Police Accountability in Wake of Sonya Massey's Murder: After the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey in her own home by the very sheriff's deputy she called for help tragically underscored the clear need for crisis intervention and de-escalation tactics among law enforcement officers, Duckworth led her Senate Democratic colleagues in pushing to strengthen police accountability, deliver justice to families and improve de-escalation training. Her Police Training and Independent Review Act would incentivize states to provide law enforcement training on fair policing and de-escalation tactics while promoting the use of independent prosecutors for investigating deadly force incidents through federal grants.

Leading Efforts to Safeguard IVF Access: In the wake of Donald Trump's Supreme Court Justices overturning Roe v. Wade, Senator Duckworth led the charge against Republicans' extreme efforts to take away Americans' reproductive rights and threaten access to IVF for those looking to start or grow their families. After warning for years that Republicans would seek to ban IVF if they succeeded in overturning Roe, only for Alabama's Supreme Court to prove her right, Duckworth introduced her Right to IVF Act to protect IVF nationwide. Senator Duckworth forcefully worked to pass her landmark bill as Republicans and Donald Trump actively blocked it from becoming law, all while claiming to support family building through IVF.

Helping Bring Illinois Hostages Home and Pushing for Humanitarian Aid to Gaza: With the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza-and the humanitarian crisis it has caused-stretching on for more than a year, Duckworth continued her efforts to secure a for permanent mutual ceasefire that will release the hostages and alleviate the suffering of innocent civilians. She has consistently called for bringing sustained and expanded humanitarian relief into Gaza to address the humanitarian crisis there.

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