Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Senator Patty Murray Becoming The First Woman To Cast 10,000 Senate Votes
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor congratulating Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) on casting her 10,000th vote as a senator. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:
Our dear friend Senator Patty Murray reached an incredible milestone: 10,000 votes over the course of her career in the Senate, the first woman Senator in American history to do so. We’re not supposed to clap but every once in a while breaking protocol is appropriate as it is now!
So it is a remarkable accomplishment for a truly remarkable public servant. Her accomplishments go—if she just cast 10,000 votes that would be pretty good—but her accomplishments go way beyond that and often dwarf it.
She was also the first woman to serve in several Senate leadership positions; Chair of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Chair of the Budget Committee, and of course, at the beginning of this Congress, she made history as the first woman ever to serve as President Pro Tempore of the Senate.
She’s a voice the Senate, the country, rely on, on some of the biggest issues we’ve faced. When she speaks, everyone listens: Democrats, Republicans, liberals, independents, because they know that she has studied it carefully and it comes right from the heart. It’s not political calculation in any way. In issues like health care, environment, labor rights, pension, child care, there is Patty Murray as a beacon, not just a speaker, not just a legislator, but a beacon to all of us.
And let me tell you, she’s been such a valued member of my leadership team through the years, where she did so, so much, and I relied on her for advice. I know her phone number by heart because I call her so much.
Let’s take a moment to recognize this great person, this great woman, this great senator, this great friend, this great member of the United States Senate, Senator Patty Murray.
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