Barbara Mikulski

Barbara Mikulski (born July 20, 1936, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.) is an American politician who was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1986 and represented Maryland in that body from 1987 to 2017. She was the first Democratic woman senator not elected as a replacement for her spouse, and in 2011 she surpassed Margaret Chase Smith’s record to become the longest-serving female senator. Mikulski previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1977–87).

Mikulski was raised in the Highlandtown neighbourhood of Baltimore, where her parents ran a grocery store. Inspired by the life of Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, she aspired to a career in the sciences but found herself better suited to social work. She received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Mount Saint Agnes College (now part of Loyola University Maryland) in 1958. While working for social service organizations in Baltimore, Mikulski attended the University of Maryland, receiving a master’s degree in social work in 1965. She then worked for agencies that addressed drug addiction and the treatment of the elderly.

Mikulski soon became involved in the burgeoning civil rights movement, campaigning against segregation and working to ease tensions between black and white communities in the city. In 1971 Mikulski helped found the Southeast Council Against the Road (SCAR) in opposition to a plan to build a highway through a Baltimore neighbourhood; SCAR ultimately prevailed. The council evolved into the Southeast Community Organization, which went on to advocate for additional local causes. She was elected to the Baltimore City Council in 1971 and served until 1976. During her tenure she established commissions on care of the elderly and of rape victims.

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Having run unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1974, Mikulski was victorious in her 1976 campaign for the House of Representatives; she served for four more consecutive terms. During her tenure she secured positions on a number of committees whose decisions were important to the harbour city of Baltimore, among them the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce (later, Committee on Energy and Commerce). Mikulski was a vocal opponent of the deep cuts enacted to social programs during the administration of U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan. In 1986 she was elected to the U.S. Senate, which made her the first female Democrat to win a seat in both legislative bodies. Mikulski served on several important Senate committees, including the Appropriations Committee (1987–17), of which she was the first female chair (2012–15), and the Select Committee on Intelligence (2001–17).

As a legislator, Mikulski vociferously advocated for a wide variety of causes, partisan and otherwise, notably focusing on social inequities and funding for health and science research. Her intervention as a member of the Appropriations Committee was widely credited with salvaging the New Horizons mission to Pluto when budgetary concerns threatened to scuttle it in 2002 and 2003. In 2007–08 Mikulski served as a cochair of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign; Clinton ultimately lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama. In 2008 Mikulski campaigned vigorously for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which extended the time frame in which pay-discrimination plaintiffs are able to file a complaint; the bill passed Congress in 2009. She also championed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010), to which she introduced an amendment that guaranteed annual health screenings for all women that would include preventive diagnostics for major health problems specific to females, and she was among the cosponsors of the act (2010) that repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the U.S. policy that prevented openly homosexual citizens from serving in the military.

In 2010 Mikulski also sponsored Rosa’s Law, which mandated the replacement of the term “mental retardation” with “intellectual disability” in federal legislation. As one of the senior female senators, Mikulski served as an informal dean to incoming women, mentoring and guiding them through the byzantine procedures and politics of the legislative body. She announced in March 2015 that she would not seek reelection the following year. At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, she was given the honour of nominating Hillary Clinton as the party’s presidential candidate. Mikulski left office in 2017.

Mikulski penned two novels featuring a female senator, Capitol Offense (1996) and Capitol Venture (1997), with journalist Marylouise Oates. In 2015 Mikulski was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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