The new chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL)

Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), is the new chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law; the ranking minority member on the subcommittee is Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK). Durbin previously headed the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs; Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) now chairs that subcommittee.

Durbin’s subcommittee has jurisdiction over matters of human rights and policies, the enforcement and implementation of human rights laws, judicial proceedings regarding human rights laws, and judicial and executive branch interpretations of human rights laws.

Durbin also chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, whose jurisdiction includes the Judiciary and the General Services Administration, the agency responsible for the construction of federal courthouses.