Tammy Duckworth

This Veterans Day also marks a special day for Duckworth, a veteran herself — who’s celebrating the 20-year anniversary of surviving being severely injured in the line of duty.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who had been on shortlists as a potential replacement for President Joe Biden, said he had spoken to Harris and told her the president’s decision “came as a genuine surprise.”

The Army Corps shelved 14 flood control measures authorized in 1965 for the area because of “low cost-benefit ratios.” The federal lawmakers noted that decades later the communities experience frequent flooding.

Illinois quit collecting property taxes from disabled veterans in 2015, but that has cost Metro East school districts and other taxing bodies near Scott Air Force Base hundreds of thousands — or sometimes millions of dollars.

For years, Metro East leaders have touted this proposed MetroLink expansion as a vital link to help travelers by connecting MidAmerica with St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

Officials announced Cahokia Heights would receive $37 million in funding because of failing infrastructure. Over two years later, that money is still to be seen.

The Illinois Democrat toured homes in the area to see the damage from chronic flooding during heavy rains, which often contains raw sewage.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth says the infrastructure deal will cover the cost of repairing decades-old problems."

Democratic Representative Cori Bush made history when she became the first Black Congresswoman for Missouri, unseating the Clay political dynasty. She brought her background as a nurse, activist, organizer, single mom and pastor to her new role and has jumped headfirst into advocating for issues ranging from reparations for Black Americans to taxing billionaires to Medicare for All. She teamed up with Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth to introduce a bill that would bring together federal agencies and create a mapping tool to help allocate environmental funding from the Biden administration. Just last week, she also joined forces with New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to introduce a $1 trillion dollar bill to fund environmental justice projects for the next four years. In this episode, we’ll hear from Senator Tammy Duckworth and Congresswoman Cori Bush about three major environmental justice bills: the Environmental Justice for All Act, the Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act, and the Green New Deal for Cities Act.This episode was a collaboration with Jason Rosenbaum, St. Louis Public Radio political correspondent and co-host of the Politically Speaking podcast. You can listen to the Politically Speaking episodes with Senator Duckworth and Congresswoman Bush at stlpr.org or anywhere you get podcasts.

Duckworth spoke with St. Louis Public Radio's Eric Schmid and We Live Here's Jia Ling Yang and Lauren Brown about her legislation.