Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) praised Sen. Barbara Mikulski, after President Obama announced he would give the retiring Maryland Democrat the Medal of Freedom.
“I know she was honored by it. I know that someone she mentioned on the floor yesterday, her great-grandmother, would feel a similar sense of honor, too,” the Republican leader said from the Senate floor. “We recognize our colleague from Maryland, the longest-serving woman in Congress, and the president’s choice to honor her in this way.”
{mosads}Reid added that the Maryland senator is “an inspiring figure.”
“She and I came to the Senate together, and we will leave the Senate together. She’s been a friend, an ally and just one of the most articulate people I’ve ever served with,” he said.
Mikulski, who is retiring at the end of her current term, is one of 17 Americans who will receive the medal, Obama announced Monday.
She said on Monday that she is “deeply honored and humbled.”
“I have been so deeply honored to serve the people of Maryland and the nation. To the people of Maryland, I thank you because I could not have had an opportunity to serve in such a way had they not honored me with their confidence and their trust by voting for me,” she added at the time.