Barbara Ann Mikulski (/mɪˈkʌlski/ mih-CULL-skee; born July 20, 1936) is an American politician and social worker who served as a United States senator from Maryland from 1987 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she also served in the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987. Mikulski is the third-longest-serving female United States Senator,^[1][2] and the longest-serving U.S. Senator in Maryland history.^{[lower-alpha 1]}

Quick Facts United States Senator from Maryland, Preceded by ...

Barbara Mikulski
Official portrait, 2011
United States Senator from Maryland
In office January 3, 1987 – January 3, 2017
Preceded by	Charles Mathias
Succeeded by	Chris Van Hollen
Committee chairmanships Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee In office December 17, 2012 – January 3, 2015 Preceded by Dan Inouye Succeeded by Thad Cochran
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 3rd district
In office January 3, 1977 – January 3, 1987
Preceded by	Paul Sarbanes
Succeeded by	Ben Cardin
Personal details
Born	Barbara Ann Mikulski (1936-07-20) July 20, 1936 (age 87) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	Mount Saint Agnes College (BA) University of Maryland, Baltimore (MSW)
Signature
Barbara Mikulski's voice Barbara Mikulski reflects on her legislative career upon becoming the longest-serving woman in Congress Recorded March 21, 2012

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Raised in the Fells Point neighborhood of East Baltimore, Mikulski attended Mount Saint Agnes College and the University of Maryland School of Social Work.^[3][4] Originally a social worker and community organizer, she was elected to the Baltimore City Council in 1971 after delivering a highly publicized address on the "ethnic movement" in America.^[4] She was elected to the House of Representatives in 1976, and in 1986, she became the first woman elected to the United States Senate from Maryland.^[5]

From the death of Senator Daniel Inouye in December 2012 until 2015, Mikulski chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee. She was the first woman and first Marylander to hold the position.^[6][7] At her retirement, she was the ranking minority member of the committee. She also served on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence.

On March 2, 2015, Mikulski announced that she would retire after five terms in the Senate and would not seek reelection in 2016.^[8][9] In January 2017, Mikulski joined Johns Hopkins University as a professor of public policy and advisor to University President Ronald J. Daniels.^[10]

Mikulski was born and raised in the Fell's Point neighborhood of East Baltimore, the eldest of the three daughters of Christine Eleanor (née Kutz) and William Mikulski.^[11][12] Her parents were both of Polish descent; her immigrant great-grandparents had owned a bakery in Baltimore. During her high school years at the Institute of Notre Dame,^[13] she worked in her parents' grocery store, delivering groceries to elderly neighbors who were unable to leave their homes.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Mount Saint Agnes College (now a part of Loyola University Maryland) in 1958,^[13] she obtained her master's degree in social work (MSW) from the University of Maryland School of Social Work in 1965.^[14] She worked as a social worker for Catholic charities and Baltimore's Department of Social Services, helping at-risk children and educating seniors about the Medicare program. Mikulski became an activist social worker when she heard about plans to build Interstate 95 through Baltimore's Fells Point and Canton neighborhoods. She helped organize communities on both sides of the city and successfully fought to stop the construction of the road. Her efforts to prevent the highway from running through Southeast Baltimore also resulted in the establishment of the Southeast Community Organization, a non-profit which worked to improve Baltimore neighborhoods.^[15]

Mikulski first received national attention in 1970 because of her remarks at a conference at The Catholic University of America regarding "Ethnic Americans" convened by Msgr. Geno Baroni. Her message became one of the major documents of the "ethnic movement". Mikulski's remarks included the following:

America is not a melting pot. It is a sizzling cauldron for the ethnic American who feels that he has been politically courted and legally extorted by both government and private enterprise. The ethnic American is sick of being stereotyped as a racist and dullard by phony white liberals, pseudo black militants and patronizing bureaucrats. He pays the bill for every major government program and gets nothing or little in the way of return. Tricked by the political rhetoric of the illusionary funding for black-oriented social programs, he turns his anger to race—when he himself is the victim of class prejudice.

[He] has worked hard all his life to become a 'good American;' he and his sons have fought on every battlefield—then he is made fun of because he likes the flag. The ethnic American is overtaxed and underserved at every level of government. He does not have fancy lawyers or expensive lobbyists getting him tax breaks on his income. Being a home owner, he shoulders the rising property taxes—the major revenue source for the municipalities in which he lives. Yet he enjoys very little from these unfair and burdensome levies.

... [T]he ethnic American also feels unappreciated for the contribution he makes to society. He resents the way the working class is looked down upon. In many instances he is treated like the machine he operates or the pencil he pushes. He is tired of being treated like an object of production. The public and private institutions have made him frustrated by their lack of response to his needs. At present he feels powerless in his daily dealings with and efforts to change them. Unfortunately, because of old prejudices and new fears, anger is generated against other minority groups rather than those who have power. What is needed is an alliance of white and black, white collar, blue collar and no collar based on mutual need, interdependence and respect, an alliance to develop the strategy for new kinds of community organization and political participation.^[16]

Mikulski's activism led to a seat on the Baltimore City Council in 1971. In 1973 incoming Chairperson of the Democratic National Committee Robert S. Strauss appointed then Baltimore City Councilperson Mikulski to chair the Democratic Party Commission on New Delegate Selection and Party Structure. She was instrumental in solidifying democratizing reforms to the national delegate selection process.^[17][18]

In 1976, Paul Sarbanes gave up his seat in Maryland's 3rd congressional district to make a successful run for the Senate. Mikulski won a crowded seven-way Democratic primary—the key election given a heavily Democratic district—and won easily in the November elections. She was reelected four more times, never facing substantive opposition.^{[citation needed]}

Mikulski was one of 11 senators to vote against both the 1991 and 2002 resolutions authorizing the use of force in Iraq.^[42][43]

Mikulski has opposed predatory lending, and has been an outspoken opponent of Fairbanks Capital (now Select Portfolio Servicing), alleged to have illegally foreclosed on over 100 homes in Maryland.^[44]

Mikulski has been an outspoken advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment.^[45] She has also spoken in support of abortion rights and has stated she does not view the opposition to this issue as misogynistic.^[46]

On October 1, 2008, Mikulski voted in favor of HR1424, the Senate version of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which provided a $700 billion bailout to the United States financial market.

In October 2013, Mikulski sponsored a bill honoring naturopathic medicine.^[47]

In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Mikulski's name and picture.^[60]

The NASA-funded Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore named one of the world's largest astronomy databases after Mikulski (Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes), as she was a long time champion of the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes.^[61]

In 2011, Mikulski was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.^[62]

In 2012, when NASA discovered an exploding star, they named it "Supernova Mikulski" in her honor.^[63] Also in 2012, Mikulski was presented the Harriet Ross Tubman Lifetime Achievement Award by the Maryland African American Tourism Council.^[64]

On August 22, 2013 the President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski honored Mikulski with a Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta for "outstanding achievements in the development of Polish-American cooperation and activity for Poles living in the United States".^[65]

In November 2015, Mikulski was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama at a ceremony in the White House.^[66][67]

In 2020, the Senator Barbara A. Mikulski Room, with mementos and Mikulski’s Presidential Medal of Freedom, was opened in the Enoch Pratt Free Library.^[68][69]

On June 8, 2022, a room in the United States Capitol was named after Mikulski. It is the Barbara Mikulski room, S-115, located on the first floor of the side of the Capitol where the Senate is. It is one of the first two rooms in the Capitol to be named after women who were senators, the other being the Margaret Chase Smith room, which was named on the same day.^[68][70]

Barbara Mikulski never married and has no children.^[71] She is only 4 ft 11 in (150 cm) tall and often jokingly said: "I may be short, but I won't be overlooked".^[72] She is a Roman Catholic.^[72] Raised in a Polish-American and devoutly Catholic family, Mikulski attended the Mount Saint Agnes College in Baltimore and considered joining Sisters of Mercy, but ultimately decided against it. Discussing her decision to remain a laywoman, she stated: "The vow of obedience did not have great appeal for me. Poverty was one thing, and I could go along with chastity. But it was obedience. I thought, 'My God, all my life there could be someone telling me what to do and where to go!' And inside me beats the heart of a protestor."^[72]

• Virginia S. Baker
• Women in the United States House of Representatives
• Women in the United States Senate