Jumpstart Our Business STARTUPS Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I am proud to be able to join my colleagues on the floor this afternoon in honoring Senator Barbara Mikulski for her service to Maryland and for the endless contributions she has made to the people of this country.

It is very hard to adequately describe a political icon such as Barbara Mikulski. For all of us women in politics, she is a model of what we can aspire to or what we would hope to aspire to.

I just want to tell a simple story about BARB that I think reflects her ability to get along with people, her zest for life, as so many of my colleagues have described, and the connection she makes that makes a difference for people.

She and I were on a flight with four other Senators to the security forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a couple of years ago, and the weather was bad, so our flight was diverted to Bangor, ME. It was winter in New England, and of course, when there is bad weather in New England in the winter, it sticks around for a while, so we were trapped overnight in Bangor. Most of us just sort of sat there waiting to figure out what was going to be done while we waited for a flight the next day, but not BARBARA because she doesn't sit still. She is never afraid to pick up the phone and take action, and that is exactly what she did. BARBARA dialed up her old friend and colleague--the colleague of all of us--Senator Susan Collins, and said: Guess where I am. And that is how those of us who were on that flight--the six Senators and the Secretary of Homeland Security--wound up joining Senator Collins and the legendary Troop Greeters of Bangor, ME, in welcoming troops at the airport as they returned home from overseas. So what had earlier seemed like an inconvenience turned into a fabulous opportunity to thank our brave men and women in uniform and to have a good time while we were doing it.

You find those kinds of things happening if you spend time with Barbara Mikulski. It is a byproduct of her relentless energy, her drive to better her community and our Nation as a whole, her deep commitment to fighting for women's health, and her unfailing grace and gumption as a legislator, a colleague, and a friend.

As has been said, she got her start as a social worker trying to make the lives of men and women in her native Baltimore a little easier to bear. She was working in the service of values that were taught to her by her family, who owned the neighborhood grocery store. And as so many have commented, she often tells the story of her father opening the store early so that steelworkers coming in for the early-morning shift would have time to buy their lunch. BARB has carried that spirit, those values she learned from her family in that grocery store here to the Senate, and often those values are sorely needed here.

As dean of the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues, she has built a sense of community within the caucus. Her bipartisan women's dinners are legendary. And, of course, what happens at those dinners stays at those dinners. Those are MIKULSKI's rules. But we really don't need to look any further than that wintry night in Maine to know how effective she has been in making things happen for people.

I look forward to more of her dinners, to more conversations with the Senator, to more chances to work with her as she fights on behalf of women and seniors and veterans and all those who don't have a voice in government and at the table. I thank the Senator for her friendship, for her leadership, and for her many years of service.

I yield the floor.

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