[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 43 (Thursday, March 17, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1585-S1586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH 2016

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, today I wish to join the American people 
in celebrating Women's History Month. It is clear that 1 month is 
hardly enough time to recognize all that women have done, what they are 
doing, and what they have yet to accomplish. Despite the persistence of 
dogmatic opposition, women have played a major role in advancing every 
society on earth.
  I am a proud husband, father, and grandfather. In my time 
representing the people of Maryland, in the U.S. Senate, I have 
traversed the State many times. As a member and now ranking member of 
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I have had the chance to travel 
and meet with people from very diverse backgrounds.
  At home and abroad, I have found it difficult and often imprudent to 
make generalizations with regard to policy. One common truth, however, 
that easily crosses national borders, ethnic lines, political divides, 
and religious devotions is this: the way a nation treats its women is 
very much a barometer as to how well that nation is doing.
  And so this March we will celebrate women on the forefront of 
industry and innovation, science and social justice, policy and 
patriotism, and so much more. We must also remember that Women's 
History Month is not just about celebrations. Women's History Month 
should be a time when all Americans come together for a frank 
conversation about the well-being of women at home and abroad. That 
conversation must lead to concrete action because, if we want to 
improve any aspect of our society, starting with empowering and lifting 
up women is an investment that will return the greatest dividends.
  Throughout American history, we have made progress in so many arenas 
because women had the bravery to break the proverbial glass ceiling. 
One such woman who I think deserves accolades during this Women's 
History Month, and every month for that matter, is a Member of this 
very body. This Congress boasts the most female representatives in 
history. I suspect that number would be larger if we gave the people of 
Washington, DC, full statehood and a voting Senator, but I will discuss 
that another time.
  The record number of women in Congress is not an accident; it took 
hard work and grit. The living embodiment of that grit and know-how is 
the senior Senator from Maryland, my colleague Senator Mikulski. There 
is a wonderful sense of symmetry in the fact that in 1981, then-
Congresswoman Mikulski co-sponsored the first Joint Congressional 
Resolution proclaiming a Women's History Week, and today she is being 
celebrated as a role model during Women's History Month.
  Senator Barb has been more than a dedicated champion for the State of 
Maryland. She has fought tirelessly for the welfare of all Americans 
across the country. In the Halls of the Senate, she opened doors that 
had previously been closed to women. Sometimes she used gentle 
politicking, and sometimes she knocked the doors off the hinges. No 
matter how she did it, Senator Barb refused to accept second-class 
treatment because of her gender and fought to be recognized as an 
equal. To take that one step further, Senator Barb refused to let other 
women be treated like second-class citizens by the rule of law or 
antiquated social norms. I don't have the time to list all that she has 
done for Marylanders and working families across the country in her 
long and distinguished career, but I will share a list of hard-fought 
firsts: first Democratic woman elected to the U.S. Senate in her own 
right; first Democratic woman to serve in both Houses of Congress; 
first woman to be elected to statewide office in Maryland; first 
Democratic woman Senator elected to a leadership position; first 
Democratic woman to serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee; first 
woman to chair an Appropriations Subcommittee--the Commerce-Justice-
Science Subcommittee; first woman to serve on the Senate Environment & 
Public Works Committee; first woman to serve on the Senate Small 
Business Committee; first woman to serve on the House Interstate & 
Foreign Commerce, now known as the Energy & Commerce Committee--first 
woman on the Health Subcommittee; most senior woman in the Senate on 
January 3, 1997; longest serving woman Senator in U.S. history on 
January 5, 2011; and longest serving woman in Congress in U.S. history 
on March 17, 2012.
  Senator Barb will be leaving the Senate when her term ends next 
January. That does not mean that she will stop doing what she does 
best, fighting for what is right. Generations of young women who choose 
to participate in public life or who dream of joining the U.S. Senate 
have benefited from Senator Barb's trailblazing legacy.
  As we begin to fathom life in the U.S. Senate without Senator Barb, 
we should take a minute to analyze the current state of politics and 
policy as it relates to women in America.
  Regardless of any Member's political support of anyone running to 
replace President Obama, it is worth noting that there is a chance that 
a woman, a former U.S. Senator, a former Secretary of State, and Former 
First Lady could potentially be the next President of the United 
States.
  The 2016 election should serve as a chance to audit how our political 
system is working on behalf of women, including in terms of health 
care.
  The Affordable Care Act, ACA, has played a role in creating greater 
gender equality in this country. Under the ACA, being a woman is no 
longer a ``preexisting condition.'' What does that mean? It means 
insurance companies can no longer force women to pay more based on 
their gender.
  The ACA also provides more preventive services for women at no cost. 
Lifesaving preventive services like mammograms, cervical cancer 
screenings, and prenatal care are now covered at no additional cost for 
roughly 48.5 million American women with private insurance. Access to 
these services means that fewer women will be sidelined from the job 
market, unable to support families because of preventable illnesses. 
There is no question that we are making progress in women's health 
care, in terms of cost, equity, and in providing much-needed services.
  We have further to go. Gender-based disparities in medical research 
still remain. Some medical trials today do not consider the impact of 
gender in their research, and diseases like heart disease, which is the 
leading cause of death for American women, are often misdiagnosed or 
overlooked.
  That is why I have continuously fought for robust funding for the 
National Institutes of Health, NIH, which pioneers much of our Nation's 
groundbreaking medical research and clinical trials. I was very 
encouraged to see the NIH receive a $2 billion increase in the fiscal 
year 2016 Omnibus spending bill--thanks in large part to Senator 
Mikulski. That is the largest increase NIH has received since 2003. By 
ensuring that NIH has all of the tools it needs to continue such urgent 
work, we can address persistent disparities and continue to build on 
the gains in our health care system made under the ACA. One thing is 
certainly clear: we only stand to gain from increased resources for our 
medical community to improve the health of women.
  Improving health care is only one part of the equation involved in 
empowering and uplifting women in the United States.
  I have previously spoken about the need to close the gender pay gap, 
the need to pass meaningful legislation to reduce the number of women 
killed by guns during instances of domestic violence, and the need to 
ensure women can continue to make choices concerning their own 
reproductive health. All of these are critically important to the well-
being of women in America.
  America was built on the promise of equal rights. Our history is 
defined by groups struggling to achieve full equality under the law. I 
think many Americans would be shocked to find out that the Constitution 
still lacks a provision ensuring gender equality. Think about that: 
women still lack the same constitutional protections as men. I think 
this is wrong and have introduced legislation to remove the deadline 
for States to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which 35 States have 
ratified already--just three more to go.
  The Equal Rights Amendment is slightly longer than two tweets, but

[[Page S1586]]

would finally give women full and equal protection under the 
Constitution. It reads as follows:

       Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be 
     denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on 
     account of sex.
       Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by 
     appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
       Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after 
     the date of ratification.

  It is that simple. When Congress passed the ERA in 1972, it provided 
that the measure had to be ratified by three-fourths of the States, 38 
States, within 7 years. This deadline was later extended to 10 years by 
a joint resolution enacted by Congress, but ultimately only 35 out of 
38 States had ratified the ERA when the deadline expired in 1982. To 
put that in context, in 1992, the 27th Amendment to the Constitution 
prohibiting immediate Congressional pay raises was ratified after 203 
years.
  Article V of the Constitution contains no time limits for 
ratification of constitutional amendments, and the ERA time limit was 
contained in a joint resolution, not the actual text of the amendment. 
The Senate could pass my legislation removing the 10-year deadline 
right now. I hope that the majority leader will bring this legislation 
up for a vote because American women deserve to know that their most 
fundamental rights are explicitly protected by our Nation's most 
venerated document.
  I would like to take a moment to discuss some issues that apply more 
to women outside of the United States but still affect every American.
  I serve as the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee. In that position, I have seen firsthand how the relatively 
small amount of money allocated for foreign assistance saves both lives 
and American tax dollars over time. At less than 1 percent of the 
Federal budget, foreign assistance helps us rely less on costly 
military operations and prevent international catastrophes before they 
happen.
  As I previously stated, the way a nation treats its women is very 
much a barometer as to how well that nation is doing. And just as in 
the United States, giving women outside United States the tools they 
need to succeed uplifts families, communities and nations. The 
millennium development goals, MDGs, were some of the most aggressive 
and successful attempts to combat global poverty and improve the 
quality of life for millions of women and families in the developing 
world.
  The millennium development goals, first established in 2000, brought 
together nations, businesses, international organizations, and 
foundations in a focused and coordinated effort to reduce poverty and 
disease by 2015. Over the last two decades, the number of people 
worldwide living in extreme poverty has been cut in half, from about 
one in every six people in 1990 to 836 million in 2015. We have made 
progress in global education, with a 20 percent increase in primary 
school enrollment in sub-Saharan Africa and a nearly 50 percent 
decrease in the number of out-of-school children of primary school age.
  In terms of gender equality, we still have a long way to go, but 
today we can cheer the fact that women have gained more parliamentary 
representation in ninety percent of the countries of the world than 
twenty years ago. The rate of maternal mortality has declined by forty-
five percent worldwide, including by sixty-four percent in Southern 
Asia and forty-nine percent in sub-Saharan Africa.
  When it comes to combating HIV/AIDS, we have made truly incredible 
strides over the past fifteen years. New HIV infections dropped by 
forty percent between 2000 and 2013, and the number of people living 
with HIV that were receiving anti-retroviral therapy increased 
seventeenfold from 2003 to 2014.
  Behind these impressive numbers are countless women who are alive and 
strengthening their families and communities because of the millennium 
development goals, but there are still many areas where we need to make 
more progress.
  In September 2015, more than 150 world leaders gathered at the United 
Nations General Assembly to adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable 
Development and the 17 sustainable development goals, SDGs. The SDGs 
aim to build on the successes of the millennium development goals and 
catalyze further progress.
  One area where there is still much work to be done concerns child 
marriages. I am pleased the sustainable development goal 5 includes a 
target to eliminate child, early and forced marriages.
  According to the United States Agency for International Development, 
USAID, each year, 14.2 million girls are married before their 18th 
birthday. Some of these girls are as young as 9 years old. Childhood 
marriage robs girls of their adolescence, denies them an education, 
greatly increases the risk of maternal mortality, and decreases their 
chance of becoming economically independent. Pregnancy and childbirth 
are the leading causes of death for young girls in low- to middle-
income countries. And children of young mothers have higher rates of 
infant mortality and malnutrition compared to children of mothers older 
than 18.
  Terrorist groups often use forced marriages to sustain their efforts. 
Last April, for instance, Boko Haram kidnapped over 250 girls in 
Nigeria. Some of those girls were later forced to marry their 
kidnappers. The so-called Islamic State is also notorious for forcing 
local women and girls to marry its fighters. Forced marriage is 
deplorable for many reasons, not the least of which is that is it used 
as a weapon of war.
  The women and girls being forced into these marriages are the very 
same women and girls who could be leaders, business owners, teachers, 
and doctors if given the chance. It is in the best interest of these 
girls and of the United States that the international community speak 
with a united voice against this practice. As ranking member of the 
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I invite all members of Congress to 
work together to find a way to address this pressing human rights 
issue.
  I am an original co-sponsor of S. Res. 97, a bipartisan resolution 
supporting the goals of International Women's Day. After seeing the 
impacts that the MDGs have had on vulnerable populations around the 
world, I have no doubt that the goals contained in this resolution can 
be accomplished if the United States is willing to take the lead in 
organizing the international community.
  I have mentioned only a small portion of legislative priorities the 
Senate could act on right now.
  As we move through Women's History Month, let us remember that strong 
and empowered women have gotten us to this point in history and will 
help lead us to a brighter future.

                          ____________________