Congress to honor Mikulski's service

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., will be feted Wednesday in the U.S. Capitol for achieving a historic milestone as the longest-serving woman in congressional history.

Mikulski, 75, has had a career defined by firsts. She was elected to the House in 1976, and 10 years later, she became the first woman elected to the Senate who did not have a husband or father serve before her.

In 2011, she passed former Maine GOP senator Margaret Chase Smith as the longest-serving woman in Senate history, and on March 17, she became the longest-serving woman in Congress overall. She was the first woman elected statewide in Maryland, and she was the first woman to chair an appropriations subcommittee.

Known for her bluntness, she has been dubbed the "meanest" U.S. senator by Washingtonian magazine, but Mikulski also commands respect among her colleagues, particularly the 17 women serving in the Senate. Mikulski is the dean.

"She is a champion for every woman coming behind her. We all owe her a debt of gratitude," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who has followed Mikulski's path to Senate leadership and as an appropriator.

Mikulski has been a prominent advocate for women's rights. In 2009, she guided the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act through the Senate and stood next to President Obama when he signed it into law. She authored a bill that established the Office of Women's Health at the National Institute of Health. She has also supported legislation to expand women's access to preventive health care, including mammograms, and to require insurance companies to cover health conditions specific to women.

She has worked hard to promote and elect more women. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., recalled how Mikulski aided her first Senate campaign in a year that would later be dubbed "the Year of the Woman" because it sent four newly elected women to the chamber.

"When we were running back in 1992, Barbara Mikulski was on the phone with us, 'What can I do to help?' When we got here, she helped in any way. She is so totally supportive of women," Feinstein said. "It's very special to see someone like this reach this apex."

Mikulski has often bristled at questions regarding women in politics, which she has long viewed as a matter of parity, not special treatment. When 1992 was dubbed the "Year of the Woman," Mikulski famously quipped, "Calling 1992 the Year of the Woman makes it sound like the Year of the Caribou or the Year of the Asparagus. We're not a fad, a fancy, or a year."

Senators, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will honor Mikulski on the Senate floor in speeches Wednesday, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will host a Women's History Month reception in her honor. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and former secretary of State Madeleine Albright are likely to attend.