Mazie Hirono: “before I begin my remarks, I wish to thank Senator Mikulski for the tremendous work she did on the continuing…”

“before I begin my remarks, I wish to thank Senator Mikulski for the tremendous work she did on the continuing resolution. I know she worked so hard, and yet she is on the floor today to talk about how important passing the Murray budget is. And of course Senator Murray is on the floor also, and I want to thank her for her great work. I stand in solidarity with all the men and women, my colleagues, who are going to be talking about how important it is to pass the Murray budget, which is a balanced budget that reflects our priorities and our values. The last few years have been hard for families across the country. Our economy is still struggling its way out of a great recession, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And we have made progress. For example, the economy has grown and millions of people are back to work. But this progress is not fast enough for too many families in Hawaii and across our Nation. Regrettably, that doesn't seem to concern some of our colleagues in the House of Representatives. The budget proposed by the House majority, the Ryan budget, would set our economic recovery back and it would do so on the backs of those who can least afford it. Some of the hardest hit will be women and children, the very people who face some of the biggest challenges in today's economy. So I want to focus on how the Ryan budget negatively impacts women in our country.…”