Patty Murray becomes first female Senate president pro tem, third in line to presidency

When Sen. Patty Murray was elected to the Senate in 1992, she says, male senators treated her with some trepidation. But now the Washington state Democrat has outlasted almost all of them and become the first woman appointed president pro tempore — a senior member of the majority who presides over the Senate and is third in line to the presidency.

Murray was elected in what was called the “year of the woman,” but when she joined the Senate, she was still one of very few. Among them were Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California; it was the first time both of any state’s senators were women.

“It’s changed a lot since I’ve been here,” Murray said in an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday in her first few hours as president pro tem. “When I first came here, the men were like, ‘Oh, my God, there’s a woman; what are we going to do?’ And we had to prove that we were just like them.”

Murray, 72, said she sees her own ascension to the post as another example of the slow, steady progress of women in the perpetually old-fashioned Senate.

She has championed so-called women’s issues, such as paid leave and child care, for years. She first ran as a self-proclaimed “mom in tennis shoes,” and she still wears them to this day, as a grandmother and senator.

She succeeds two-time President Pro Tem Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who has retired after almost five decades in the Senate and stood beside her as she was sworn in.

The president pro tempore — a Latin phrase meaning “for the time being” — is specified in the Constitution as a replacement for the vice president, who also serves as the president of the Senate, when he or she cannot be present.

In addition to opening the Senate each day, the president pro tem has several lesser-known duties, such as administering oaths, signing legislation and making appointments to various national commissions and advisory boards.

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Because of the post’s proximity to the presidency, the president pro tem also has a phalanx of security guards. Agents were already protecting Murray on Tuesday, accompanying her from one part of her office to another when she used a public hallway to move between rooms.

“It’s different,” Murray said, “but I’ve been through a lot of changes in my life, and I tend to just focus on what I need to do.”

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Murray was even closer to the presidency — temporarily second in line, she noted, as the newly Republican-led House was still sorting out who would be speaker.

The often-serious Murray says that the job is a “tremendous responsibility,” and that she has been preparing for it, making sure she is up-to-date on domestic and international issues.

“It’s an obligation and an opportunity,” she said of her place in the line of succession. “And I of course don’t ever want that day to come, but I have to be prepared for it.”

President Biden, her Senate colleague for many years, tweeted that he was looking forward to working with Murray.

“We’re witnessing history on Capitol Hill,” he said.

Only three other members of today’s Senate were there when Murray arrived in 1993: current Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Feinstein, a fellow Democrat who was elected with Murray but declined to seek the post of president pro tem after questions about her age, 89, and health.

Murray is also becoming chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Maine Sen. Susan Collins will become the top Republican on the panel — another first, as the powerful committee has never been led by two women.

Murray says she is hoping to work with Collins to try to scale back the practice of passing massive spending bills at the last minute, as Congress did in December and has for many years.

“Women ... have now been here long enough that we can assume positions of power,” Murray said, “that we never thought possible when I came into the Senate.”