Duckworth Secures Commitment from Army Secretary on More Communication, Less Confusion for Rock Island Arsenal Staff

Duckworth Secures Commitment from Army Secretary on More Communication, Less Confusion for Rock Island Arsenal Staff

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - Combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today secured a commitment from U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll for more advance warning and communication going forward for any additional workforce changes at Rock Island Arsenal (RIA) in her home state of Illinois. During today's U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Duckworth highlighted the chaos and confusion experienced earlier this year when as many as 155 RIA employees were originally identified as "surplus," with some told they were mistakenly identified and others offered reassignments out of the area as part of Army-wide personnel action, with only two to five days to make this life-altering decision. Driscoll today admitted this timeline in hindsight was "not sufficient." Video from today's hearing is available on the Senator's YouTube.

"I was very concerned to hear in March that the Army was suddenly reassigning employees who manage our munitions and sustainment-in the middle of a war," Duckworth said. "Over the past two months, I've heard from constituents who, instead of focusing on their missions, were thrust into personal turmoil by the Army through a hasty personnel campaign. … Some of these so-called 'surplus' employees were given two to five days to accept a job out of state and uproot their families or face termination from civil service. Two to five days to make a life-altering career decision. I don't think this is how we should be treating our patriotic career civilians."

Duckworth has been a strong advocate in pushing to protect the workforce at Rock Island Arsenal. Last month, Duckworth led U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and U.S. Representative Eric Sorensen (D-IL-17) in a letter demanding answers from Driscoll on these workforce assignments. Duckworth and the Members have continued to push for answers from the Army and called for briefings on any command and personnel changes at Rock Island Arsenal. Last year, the Members also introduced the Arsenal Workload Sustainment Act to incentivize private industry to partner with arsenals by giving preference to public-private partnerships in Army contracting, helping the RIA to maintain existing union jobs, attract new projects and workers and keep costs down.

In the FY26 National Defense Authorization Act, Duckworth secured a key provision to restrict the Secretary of the Army from using any funds allocated for restructuring until the Army provides more information about their proposed plan to integrate Joint Munitions Command and Army Sustainment Command, helping ensure operations at Rock Island Arsenal are not affected unnecessarily.

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