Jeanne Shaheen: “I thank my neighbor and friend, Senator Collins, and Senator Feinstein--the two of them for organizing this afternoon's…”

“I thank my neighbor and friend, Senator Collins, and Senator Feinstein--the two of them for organizing this afternoon's conversation on the floor in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. I also begin by recognizing Senator Mikulski, who was such a trailblazer for so many women. I remember being a young woman involved in politics in the late eighties in New Hampshire right after she was elected to the Senate, and she came up and spoke to us. At the time, I was not sure there was ever an opportunity for a woman in New Hampshire to go anywhere, and listening to her made me realize there were opportunities for women everywhere, and we need to take advantage of them, so I thank Senator Mikulski. Today we celebrate not only the passage of the 19th Amendment but the countless women who fought for decades before 1919 so that women would one day realize the full rights protected under the Constitution. As so many of my colleagues have said, we remember women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, who organized the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls in 1848; Susan B. Anthony, who took up the fight following the first convention, and Harriet Tubman, Ida Wells, and Sojourner Truth, who worked tirelessly for women's rights all while battling the forces of slavery and racism.…”