On the recordJanuary 25, 2011
as we embark on a new year and a new Congress, I stand here today to congratulate my colleague, Barbara Mikulski, on becoming the longest serving female Senator in our Nation's history. Her work in these Halls has made our country stronger. And in a place where partisan rancor too often rules the day, she has established a legacy of service that stands as an example to us all. Her political career began in the late 1960s when she launched a campaign to stop the construction of a highway over historic neighborhoods in Baltimore. Once she won that battle, she decided to run for the Baltimore City Council in 1971. Forty years later, and following a successful stint in the U.S. House of Representatives, Barbara Mikulski continues to blaze an impressive trail. During her 26 years in the Senate, she became the first woman to sit on the Senate Appropriations Committee, the first Democratic woman elected to Senate leadership, and now has crossed yet another milestone, passing Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine as the longest serving female Senator. It is not just the length of her service that we celebrate, it is its quality. No one is better at drilling down to the gist of an issue, and expressing it in punchy unforgettable terms. No one cheers us more than when she tells us to ``stand tall, square our shoulders, put on our lipstick and rise to the occasion.'' No one better combines the idealism of politics with the proactive abilities of government.
