Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) was elected Senate president pro tempore on Tuesday, becoming the first woman to hold the job since its inception and putting her third in the line of presidential succession.
Murray in an interview Tuesday recalled joining the Senate when there were only two women in the chamber. “When I was elected, it was called ‘the year of the woman,’ and we were six. And I think a lot of the men, although they wouldn’t tell you this, were just sort of like, ‘Oh my God, what are those women going to do when they’re here?’” she joked. “And I think over time we have earned the respect of not only them but people around the country that we are serious about our roles.
The ceremonial job of presiding over the Senate and signing legislation comes with a security detail and increased funding for staff. Murray said she would also like to use it to be a “problem solver in the Senate” and help craft bipartisan solutions, including with the newly Republican House, to keep the government functioning — as she did in 2013, when she helped land a budget agreement with then-Rep. Paul D. Ryan .
When Murray won the nomination for the role last month in a meeting of Senate Democrats, her colleague Sen. Mazie Hirono said she shared a bittersweet moment with Sen. Amy Klobuchar . “I just looked at Amy Klobuchar and just said, ‘Historic,’” Hirono said. “It’s taken women this long — ‘Yikes,’ that’s all I can say.”Hirono recalled when Murray was elected to Congress in the 1990s with a wave of “soccer moms,” and said she believes the Senate has changed significantly since that time. She said a male colleague whom she would not name recently told her he had taken Hirono’s feedback to men during the Supreme Court nomination hearings for Brett M.
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