PR-2118
June 5, 2021
The Visit to Taiwan of Senators Duckworth, Sullivan, and Coons
Senator Tammy Duckworth and Senator Dan Sullivan of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator Christopher Coons of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will travel to Taiwan on June 6, 2021, as part of a larger visit to the Indo-Pacific region. The bipartisan congressional delegation will meet with senior Taiwan leaders to discuss U.S.-Taiwan relations, regional security, and other significant issues of mutual interest.
For the three senators’ bios, please refer to the pages below.
U.S. Senator Ladda Tammy Duckworth
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth is an Iraq War Veteran, Purple Heart recipient and former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs who was among the first handful of Army women to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Duckworth served in the Reserve Forces for 23 years before retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 2014. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016 after representing Illinois’s Eighth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for two terms.
In 2004, Duckworth was deployed to Iraq as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot for the Illinois Army National Guard where she lost her legs and partial use of her right arm. After she recovered, she became Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs. In 2009, President Obama appointed Duckworth as an Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs, where she coordinated a joint initiative with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In the U.S. House, Duckworth served on the Armed Services Committee and was an advocate for working families, job creation and veterans’ issues. In the U.S. Senate, Duckworth serves on several influential committees: the Armed Services Committee; the Environment & Public Works Committee; the Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee; and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee.
Duckworth is fluent in Thai and Indonesian. She attended college at the University of Hawaii and earned a Master of Arts in International Affairs from the George Washington University. Following graduation, Duckworth moved to Illinois and began pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at Northern Illinois University and later worked for Rotary International.
U.S. Senator Daniel Scott Sullivan
Dan Sullivan was sworn in as Alaska’s eighth United States Senator on January 6, 2015. Sullivan serves on four Senate committees vital to Alaska: the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee; the Armed Services Committee; the Environment and Public Works Committee; and the Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Sullivan served as Alaska’s Attorney General and Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. As Alaska’s Attorney General, Sullivan’s number one priority was protecting Alaskans, their physical safety, financial well-being, and individual rights – particularly Alaska’s most vulnerable. As Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, managing one of the largest portfolios of oil, gas, minerals, renewable energy, timber, land, and water in the world. Prior to this he held judicial clerkships on both the highest federal and state courts in Alaska.
Sullivan has a distinguished record of military and national security service. He is currently a Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.
Sullivan served in the Administration of President George W. Bush as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy, and Business under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He also served as a Director in the International Economics Directorate of the National Security Council staff at the White House.
Sullivan earned a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University in 1987 and a joint law and Masters of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in 1993.
U.S. Senator Christopher Andrew Coons
Senator Coons serves on the Senate Appropriations, Foreign Relations, Judiciary, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Ethics committees. He is the chair of the Ethics Committee and the senior Democrat on two subcommittees: The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and Law and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS). He co-founded and leads the Senate Human Rights Caucus, the Senate Competitiveness Caucus, the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, the bipartisan Senate Climate Solutions Caucus, the Senate ALS Caucus, and the Senate Chicken Caucus.
Before his election to the U.S. Senate in 2010, Chris served as New Castle County Council President for four years and New Castle County Executive for six years. Prior to that he worked as an attorney for Delaware-based W.L. Gore & Associates, one of the 200 largest privately held manufacturing companies in the United States.
Chris graduated from Amherst College with a B.A. in Chemistry and Political Science in 1985. While in college, Chris spent a semester studying at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. He returned to the continent in 1987 to work with the South African Council of Churches in the anti-apartheid movement. Chris earned his law degree from Yale Law School and has a master’s degree in Ethics from Yale Divinity School.