Mikulski

Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski urged President Barack Obama on Wednesday to speed the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan. The Maryland Democrats joined a group of 24 senators in declaring the mission in Afghanistan largely accomplished. “It is time to bring our troops home from Afghanistan,” the group, which included 21 Democrats, two Republicans and an independent, wrote in a letter to Obama. “The United States intervened in Afghanistan to destroy al Qaeda's safe haven, remove the Taliban government that sheltered al Qaeda, and pursue those who planned the September 11th attacks on the United States.

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski on Wednesday likened the loss of the USNS Comfort to the departure of the Baltimore Colts - and asked Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to reconsider. The U.S. Fleet Forces Command announced last month that it was moving the white-hulled hospital ship, a fixture of the Baltimore waterfront for a quarter century, to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia. “We love the Comfort,” Mikulski, chairing a subcommittee hearing Wednesday morning on the Navy's 2013 budget request, told Mabus.

Drugs for chronic conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and diabetes would move through the Food and Drug Administration approval process more rapidly under a bipartisan bill Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski will unveil Thursday. The legislation, which will have Republican co-sponsors in the House and Senate, would direct $50 million to increase the number of experimental drugs that enter the FDA approval pipeline. To receive a grant under the program, private companies would have to put up $2 for every $1 spent by taxpayers.

Eric Wargotz, a Republican who ran an unsuccessful campaign against Democratic Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski in 2010, said Saturday he wants to take a "second look" at running for Senate this year now that State Sen. C. Anthony Muse is in the race. Earlier this year Wargotz considered running against Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin but announced in November he would not seek the seat. Now he says that Muse's candidacy -- announced Thursday -- may provide an opportunity for a Republican candidate to be more competitive.

The dean of Maryland's congressional delegation, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, endorsed Rep. Donna Edwards for reelection on Thursday, the first high-profile endorsement in a primary race that, so far, has mostly taken place behind the scenes. "She is part of the new generation of women in Congress who are coming into their own in a new way for a new day -- claiming their power to empower others," Mikulski said of her fellow Democrat in a statement released by the Edwards campaign.

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich is spot-on ("Inequality, unemployment and unresponsive government," Nov. 9). In Baltimore, 10.4 percent of people are out of work and struggling to find jobs with decent pay. Our own Sen. Barbara Mikulski has attacked a new U.S. Department of Labor rule that would raise the prevailing local wage in certain jobs in industries like seafood, landscaping, and construction. Under the existing rule, employers must offer local and migrant landscaping workers $9.12/hour.

Regarding Leon Reinstein's letter castigating Sen. Barbara Mikulski for leading the effort to defeat a Senate amendment making it easier to obtain drugs from Canada ("Mikulski wrong to oppose Canadian drug imports," Oct. 25), I would like to share a concrete experience I had. From the United States, I bought an order of 90 Nexium pills that cost me $561. But from Canada I was able to buy 84 of the same pills for just $93. That's less than one-fifth the cost of the drugs in the U.S., or a more than 80 percent discount.

Maryland Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said Wednesday she expects the Senate will pass a budget bill on Tuesday that will include $530 million to continue work toward launch of the Webb Space Telescope in 2018 "and secure America's place in astronomy for the next 50 years. " Speaking at a ribbon-cutting for a new Webb Telescope exhibit at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore, the Democratic senator added that she hopes to have the funding bill "on the president's desk to be signed into law by Thanksgiving.

The Obama Labor Department has established a fair and simple requirement for issuing H-2B visas: Employers must first offer jobs to U.S. workers, at the prevailing wage in their community, before they can get permission to import foreign workers. This is good news for U.S. workers, since the H-2B visa allows about 66,000 foreign workers a year to take jobs unemployed Americans could do. It's a major improvement over the Bush-era regulation under which employers could offer substantially lower wages to U.S. workers and then recruit for guest workers outside the country.