“Chairwoman Mikulski has consistently ensured that NASA has the resources needed to carry out its mission,” said Seth Statler, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. In Baltimore, the Space Telescope Science Institute named its astronomical archive after Mikulski, and records of the supernova bearing her name are housed there. The space agency has a significant presence in Maryland, including the Goddard Space Flight Center which employs more scientists than any other NASA center. These outlays included $1.35 million to help Girl Scouts visit their incarcerated mothers, and $292,000 to install plumbing in low-income housing in Charles County, Maryland.įrom 2008-10, a period when lawmakers were pressed to disclose earmark requests, she helped secure at least $13 million for NASA, including funds to develop space-exploring robots and to recruit science teachers. She sponsored or co-sponsored earmarks totaling $127 million that year, the watchdog group’s analysis shows. In 2010, the last year before a congressional earmark ban, her state ranked 11th in the amount of earmarks tacked on to the budget by Maryland lawmakers, according to an analysis by Taxpayers for Commonsense, a watchdog group. Records of her efforts to fund pet projects for Maryland show millions of dollars steered toward her state and to progressive causes. Mikulski was coy, however, on specific areas in need of trimming, although she said she advocates “responsible discretionary and military cuts.” But she advocates “thoughtful cuts instead of cuts that hit middle-class families or the most vulnerable among us.” “I agree we need cuts,” Mikulski told Reuters. The 4-foot-11-inch East Baltimore native now faces the unsavory task of helping decide on government program cuts.Ī consensus has formed in Washington that government spending must fall because of the soaring national debt, a view Mikulski embraces. “She has a fiery personality,” said Norm Dicks, a former Representative from Washington state, who was the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee until he retired this month. “She’s tough when she needs to be,” said spokeswoman Rachel MacKnight.įriends noted her intensity. Mikulski’s spokeswoman said the senator can get impatient when Washington grinds to a halt, but this is a sign of her commitment to her constituents. She has consistently endured the barbs of anonymous critics who participate in Washingtonian Magazine’s Capitol Hill survey and rank her among the Senate’s most irritable members. Known for her temper, Mikulski is frequently seen complaining about the throngs of people blocking the Senate chamber entrance. She had also considered becoming a Catholic nun, but was uneasy vowing obedience to church superiors, a sign of the headstrong nature that has given her a reputation for toughness. Mikulski, who entered the Senate in 1987 and is the longest serving woman in Congress, got involved in politics in the late 1960s organizing opposition to a highway slotted to cut through a Baltimore neighborhood where she worked as a social worker. “We can be frugal without being heartless,” Mikulski said in a speech on the Senate floor last month when she became chairwoman of the chamber’s Appropriations Committee. ![]() This may help her continue to shield her constituents and causes from the cold, hard politics of austerity gripping Washington. Now, as the new head of the Senate committee that helps make government spending decisions, Mikulski will be one of the most powerful players in Congress at time when an axe hangs over the national budget. ![]() She has, for example, marshaled funds to clean up polluted waterways and improve schools in poor neighborhoods nationwide. Her long record of securing “earmarks” - the practice of budgeting money for specific projects that has fallen into disfavor in Washington - also reveals a set of priorities that has made her one of America’s most liberal lawmakers. Known for years as a champion of so-called pork-barrel politics, Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski has steered government money to many pet projects, from astronomy research to new buildings on military bases, protecting federal agency operations in her home state. Senate during the second session of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina September 5, 2012. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) stands at the podium flanked by eight other Democratic female members of the U.S.
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