Kaptur Statement on Announced Retirement of Sen. Barbara Mikulski
WASHINGTON—Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur issued the following statement today in response to the announcement that Senator Barbara Mikulski will retire at the end of her current term:
“Senator Barbara Mikulski has been an exemplary leader and public servant for more than four decades. She has done legendary, persevering, heart-on-fire work for her Maryland constituents and the American people throughout her long tenure of honorable service.
Her acumen, wit, and pure grit enlivened her years as a Representative in the House, followed by her rise in the U.S. Senate as Chair of its Appropriations Committee. On literally thousands of occasions, her presence with the gavel and pen in Committees and Subcommittees has achieved a more democratic America.
Senator Mikulski has fiercely championed the causes in which she believes. The list of these causes is long and wide ranging: women's rights, workers' rights, Baltimore and Maryland, ports and shipping, Goddard Space Center and space exploration, housing and community development, and many others.
I first encountered Senator Mikulski's work in Baltimore when she was leading her community to preserve and improve the neighborhoods of her home city, a multi ethnic, multi-racial town. That led to her election to Congress in 1976 just as the Carter Administration was sworn in. Through my work on that White House staff, I soon met her as she began her House service and our urban revitalization interests converged. She was always gracious and focused on the job at hand.
When I was elected in 1982 to Congress, she was already there, one of 23 women at the time. She made the time to show me around the quarters of the House even leading me into the cloakroom, and advising me how to get remote telephones installed. I can recall when Speaker Nancy Pelosi was first running for Congress and several women Members flew out to help her. Barbara Mikulski gleefully opened the rally with the words: "Well, ladies, we used to get together for sessions on weight control; now we are here to make a difference on arms control." The line brought the house down. Her humor is legendary.
Many years later, both of us were honored to attend the funeral service of the first Polish born prelate, Pope John Paul II in Rome, an unforgettable, historic occasion.
As a Polish-American woman, Senator Mikulski has brought with her the experience and concerns of people of Slavic heritage. She remains one of the few ever elected to the Congress. Her service as longest serving woman in the U.S. demonstrates that she surely possesses the "freedom gene" so prized by people of Polish American heritage.
Senator Mikulski’s service has made Congress a more representative institution. I believe that to be her greatest achievement. I wish her all the best as she wraps up an extraordinary career of public service and goes on to whatever life has in store for her next.”
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