Congresswoman Cheri Bustos

New cases of COVID-19 among staff at the Thomson federal prison have prompted a call for more testing.

As of August 20th, 30 staff members and 18 inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus. U.S. Representative Cheri Bustos, along with Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, have called for immediate full staff testing in a letter to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Two senior U.S. Senators toured a federal prison in northwestern Illinois Tuesday.

The Administrative United States Penitentiary is based in Thomson, Illinois. Budget shortfalls meant the facility was sold to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 2012.  Since then, staff and inmate numbers have gone up, but new employees are having difficulty finding nearby housing. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois explains.

Illinois 17th Congressional District Representative Cheri Bustos is touting a report released Monday that brings rural Midwestern voices into the discussion on how to address climate change.  

Bustos said the plan for a ‘Rural Green Partnership’ is a way to make sure her part of the country isn’t left out in the response to an issue of national importance. She said some proposals to fight climate change don’t pay much attention to those in agriculture.

Despite being less than the president wanted, the bills to keep the federal government open will provide border security. That's according to Congresswoman Cheri Bustos from Moline and Illinois' 17th District.

She says the package of bills includes 1.3 billion dollars for about 55 miles of some sort of barrier along the Texas-Mexico border, but also hundreds of millions for port of entry inspections, new immigration judges, and aircraft and sensors to watch the border. 

An Illinois Congresswoman helped unveil a new bill this week that would prohibit lawmakers from using taxpayer dollars to pay for sexual harassment and assault settlements.

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-East Moline, says she was among co-sponsors of the bill to help bring transparency to harassment-claim payouts under the Congressional Accountability Act.

Bustos says her office initially sent out a statement about it because of similar allegations coming to light across the country lately.

Several months after first being mentioned as a possible candidate for governor of Illinois, Cheri Bustos has decided against it.

The congresswoman from East Moline and the 17th District Monday said she will run for re-election next year instead.

All 11 Democratic congressmen from Illinois have signed a letter to Gov. Bruce Rauner demanding that he restore funding to domestic violence shelters.

Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Rock Island, initiated the letter, which was sent Friday, after an Associated Press report showed that funding for a domestic-violence program was omitted from a temporary budget last summer.

The Department of Human Services waited nearly six months to alert providers.

Bustos is serving her third term in the U.S House and is considering opposing Rauner for governor in 2018.

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos and State Rep. Litesa Wallace are guiding women on everything from making campaign buttons to creating yard signs and explaining different political office positions.

Participants will learn skills like forming a committee and making a press release, according to Barb Verni-Lau, a Rockford resident who helped organize the event.

She’s joining efforts with Bustos and Wallace, both Democrats, to guide women who are interested in the political field but don’t know where to begin.