Sen. Barbara Mikulski to Retire After 2016
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) announced March 2 that she is retiring from the Senate when her term is up in 2016.
Mikulski, 78, has served five terms in office, longer than any other woman. She is the top Democrat on the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, and had been the first woman to chair that committee.
She and Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) led the efforts in their respective chambers to pass the Omnibus bill in December 2014 that included the suspension of parts of the hours-of-service rule.
“I have fought long and hard about the next two years, and I had to ask myself this question: Who am I campaigning for? Am I campaigning for me? Or am I campaigning for my constituents?” she said, as reported by Politico. “I had to decide how to spend my time: fighting for my job, or fighting for their job. Do I spend my time raising money, or do I spend my time raising hell? Do I focus on my election, or do I focus on the next generation?”
VIDEO: From 2012, tributes to @SenatorBarb when she became longest-serving woman in Congress. http://t.co/RQVJzaeKKF pic.twitter.com/WcJ4yYVtSU
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 2, 2015
