Patty Murray. Senior U.S. Senator from Washington. First elected in 1992, Ms. Murray, a Democrat, became the first female Senator from Washington. She has placed significant focus on healthcare-associated initiatives in her time as a legislator. The senator has backed multiple pieces of legislation designed to help patients, including measures to require medications and medical devices used on children to undergo pediatric-specific testing by the Food and Drug Administration to ensure the treatments are safe for children and not just adults. In 2015, Ms. Murray led the way during the Senate’s investigation of medical device manufacturer Olympus after the company’s duodenoscopes were linked to multiple outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
