[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15523-15524]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO BARBARA MIKULSKI

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, at times it seems that Democrats and 
Republicans in the Senate don't agree on very much, but the one thing 
we all agree on without any exception is this: Our colleague Barbara 
Mikulski of Maryland can turn a phrase better than anyone else. It is 
one of her many gifts. Just listen to some of the memorable lines we 
have heard her utter.
  Running for her first term in the Senate, Barbara said:

       I might be short, but I won't be overlooked.

  Just prior to the 2013 government shutdown, she told Senate 
Republicans:

       You can huff and puff for 21 hours, but you can't be the 
     magic dragon that blows the Affordable Care Act away.

  Earlier this year, she spoke of the Zika virus as follows:

       The mosquitoes are coming. The mosquitoes are already here. 
     You can't build a fence to keep them out, and the mosquitoes 
     won't pay for it. The mosquitoes are here--this is not an 
     Obama fantasy.

  My personal favorite was something she said at a welcome reception 
for the 1986 class. We gathered in the Russell Building, and it was a 
festive occasion for Democrats. We had many new Democrats. It was a 
huge class--Daschle, Shelby, Breaux, Graham, Conrad, and Fowler. There 
were many Democratic Senators, but the day was stolen by Barbara 
Mikulski. We were all asked to say a word. About her opponent, she 
stood and said: ``I may be short, but it sure wasn't hard for me to 
slam dunk Linda Chavez,'' her opponent.
  It is safe to say that with that quip, Barbara immediately hit it off 
with all the Members of the Senate class.
  From the moment she first set foot in the Senate, Senator Mikulski 
was determined to be herself--honest, disciplined, principled, 
undaunted, with an incredible wit and a fierce love of Maryland.
  You will not find a Member of this body more devoted to her 
circumstances--and we will talk about those in a little bit--devoted to 
her constituents and her State than Senator Barbara Mikulski. She 
served the State of Maryland for more than 50 years. A graduate of 
Mount Saint Agnes College and the University of Maryland, she made her 
name as a social worker and a political activist.
  Her grandparents are well known, especially her grandmother. They ran 
a bakery. I have heard her talk about that bakery so many times, how 
the people in the neighborhood would come and wait for that bakery to 
open. Her grandparents went there very early, as bakers do. She speaks 
with nostalgia, warmth, and love of her grandparents.
  Her own parents ran a little grocery store next to a steel mill. They 
would get there early in the morning, and the steelworkers would come 
and get their lunches and sometimes their breakfasts in that grocery 
store. Her parents were part of her life, as were her grandparents. She 
is so proud of them.
  In 1966 the Baltimore City Council proposed building a large highway 
through the center of the city of Baltimore. There was a downside to 
the plan: It would have razed entire neighborhoods, African-American 
neighborhoods and especially immigrant neighborhoods. They would have 
to leave their homes.
  The city's leaders, political bosses, and, of course, the wealthy 
real estate interests and many others--the power brokers of the State 
of Maryland, the city of Baltimore--knew this was a done deal, but the 
power brokers didn't count on a young social worker named Mikulski to 
fight for these families. It was her first political activism, and 
activism it was. It was her alone. Because of her magnetism, her 
warmth, and her ability to organize, she organized an effort to stop 
the highway. Everyone said it couldn't be done, but no one bothered to 
tell Barbara. She rallied the citizens of Baltimore in opposing the 
highway, and what a rally it was--not one rally, not two, but many of 
them until it was determined that she had won and the power brokers had 
lost. These people got to keep their homes, and today there is no 
superhighway towering over the center of Baltimore. People remember 
Barbara Mikulski for that.
  Barbara's fight against the highway made her a hero in Baltimore and 
propelled her to the city council in 1971. In 1976 Barbara Mikulski 
fought her way to the Congress of the United States as a Member of the 
House of Representatives. After five terms in the House, Barbara 
Mikulski ran for a seat in the Senate, in the one I just told you 
about. She slam-dunked her opponent, making her the first Democratic 
woman in history to win seats in both the House of Representatives and 
the Senate of the United States. Today Senator Mikulski is the longest 
serving woman to serve in the U.S. Congress. For more than 40 years she 
has served the people of Maryland.
  She is the first woman and first Marylander to chair the prestigious 
Senate Appropriations Committee. Her legislative record reflects her 
hard work for women and for equality. She worked with then-Senator Joe 
Biden to pass the first Violence Against Women Act in 1994. She was the 
architect of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. She was repeatedly in 
the forefront to fight for paycheck fairness, which determined that men 
and women who do the same work should be paid the same money.
  When so many of us were duped by misinformation about the Iraq war, 
Barbara Mikulski was not duped. She voted against the war.
  Barbara's career in the Senate has been historic, but I would be 
remiss if I failed to note her impact on my life and my career. As I 
said, we came to the Senate together. We served together. We got the 
same committees.

[[Page 15524]]

We, of course, served together in the House, but that is a huge body--
435 Members. Frankly, I served there two terms. I know the Presiding 
Officer served in the House. It is a huge body. When I left there after 
4 years, I can remember a vote taking place. Where did these people 
come from? It is hard to get to know 435 people, but I knew Barbara. 
Everybody knew Barbara. But in the Senate we came together, served on 
the same committees, and we got to know each other very well early on. 
Barbara Mikulski has always protected me, looked out for me.
  One of my first memories took place right here in the well. I was 
new, she was new, and it was a very close vote. It was an issue that 
was her issue, and I couldn't vote her way. That happens here. It was a 
close vote. People were nudging me: You have to change. You are going 
to upset everybody. You are a Democrat; you can't do that.
  In walked Barbara Mikulski into this crowd. I was there. I was really 
kind of afraid, but she wasn't. She walked in. People moved away. She 
said: ``Leave him alone. It is a matter of principle.'' People left me 
alone. That is who she is. Was she disappointed? I know she would have 
been disappointed had I not done what I believed in.
  I served for 10 years with John Ensign, the Senator from Nevada. John 
and I had a unique relationship. In 1998 I won an election for the 
Senate between Ensign and Reid by 428 votes. That was a close election. 
But as fate would have it, 2 years later he came to the Senate. Senator 
Bryan retired, and he came to the Senate.
  Well, John had some personal issues. He hadn't been here very long at 
all and had some personal issues. I called him at home, and he said: 
Yes, I have some problems here. I thought how I could help him. Here in 
the Senate we have the right to do what is called pair. Senator Ensign 
and I rarely voted alike anyway. So I said: Well, John, what I will do, 
so it won't affect your voting record, is that I will just pair with 
you and that way it won't show you have missed votes. So I agreed to do 
that, and for 2 weeks I told him I would do that.
  Well, it worked out fine because we voted differently on everything, 
except there came an issue that affected Senator Mikulski. She came to 
me and said: Why are you voting that way? I told her: Senator Ensign 
has a personal issue, and I told him I would pair with him. She said: 
If you had done anything else--and I won't use her exact language--you 
would have been a fool. I wasn't a fool in her mind. Even though it was 
not good for her, she was supportive of me. She would not have been 
satisfied that I had done something that was wrong in her mind, and she 
accepted my explanation and that I had to do what I did. We have always 
had a lot of respect for each other.
  Senator David Pryor of Arkansas had a heart attack and became very, 
very ill. He was a wonderful Senator. Everyone liked him. But he 
announced he couldn't serve as secretary of the Democratic caucus, and 
that was something that I was interested in. But I also heard Barbara 
Mikulski was interested in it. She had been so good to me so often that 
I immediately went to Barbara, and with the two of us together, I said: 
Barbara, do you want this secretary's job? She said: Yes. I said: You 
have it. That was the end of that. Nobody opposed her.
  Well, surprisingly, a few years later, out of nowhere, Wendell Ford, 
who was the whip, decided he wasn't going to run for reelection. It was 
a surprise to everyone. He was assistant Democratic leader, and that 
was something I was interested in, but again there was Mikulski. I 
didn't say a word. The word was out there that I was interested in it. 
So as fate would have it, I was walking from my office in the Hart 
Building over toward the Russell Building, and she was coming in the 
other direction. Those of us who know Barbara know that a lot of times 
she is a person of few words. She is not a gadfly. Sometimes she talks 
a lot, but sometimes she doesn't want to talk. We were passing each 
other in the hall, and she said: I want to talk to you for a minute. 
She said: You took care of me in the Senate; the whip's job is yours. 
That ended it. It was all over. When that was done, I had a clear route 
to be the whip of the Senate--the Democratic Senate.
  That is the relationship I have with Barbara Mikulski. So she is as 
responsible as anyone for my years in Democratic leadership. Without 
her friendship and her loyalty my last 20 years in the Senate would 
have been much, much different. Working with Barbara Mikulski is one of 
the highlights of my congressional career. Just hearing her speak is a 
privilege.
  I have seen and listened to good orators. When I was in the House--
and my friend, the Democratic whip is here--we heard Jim Wright. Jim 
Wright was a great orator. He was the majority leader and the Speaker 
of the House. He was really good. Tom Lantos, an immigrant from 
Hungary, could speak. He was so dynamic, so good. Claude Pepper had a 
different style but was someone you listened to. Here in the Senate I 
have listened to some great orators. Back there was Dale Bumpers. I can 
still see him. He had a long cord here. He had an extra-long one, and 
he would walk up and down these aisles speaking. He was a great orator. 
I listened to him. George Mitchell, one of my predecessors, was so 
good, so articulate--and Dick Durbin, from Illinois. They are all 
terrific orators.
  But in my estimation, there is no better orator who I have come 
across in my congressional service than Barbara Mikulski. We have 
talked about her one-liners, but I would like, just for a minute, to 
talk about a trip I took with a congressional delegation led by the 
very famous John Glenn--war hero, astronaut, and gentleman. We went to 
places in Europe. The Iron Curtain was down. We went to Poland. Barbara 
Mikulski's heritage is Polish. They called in John Glenn to give a 
speech. Ted Stevens from Alaska was also on that trip. I said: We have 
someone here who is of Polish heritage. Let's listen to her. Oh, what a 
speech--I mean it was spellbinding. She talked about how she felt about 
who she was and about her grandparents and her parents.
  So I know there is no better orator than Barbara Mikulski. That is 
because she speaks from the heart. She is honest and so genuine. As the 
Baltimore Sun wrote: ``People know authenticity when they see it, and 
there's nothing fake about Barbara Mikulski, most especially her love 
of her job.'' That is pretty good, coming from the biggest newspaper in 
the State.
  Barbara has loved her job in the Senate, and the people of Maryland 
and the United States have loved having her as their advocate and 
defender. She leaves the Senate as she entered it, as a political 
activist and a fighter.
  So, Barbara, thank you very much for your guidance, your mentoring, 
your friendship. It has been an honor to work by your side. We are 
forever friends. Godspeed, Barbara Mikulski.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________