Cochran to head Appropriations

With Republicans winning control of the Senate in November’s mid-term election, all 13 committees will get new leadership beginning this week. The heads of those committees and Veterans' Affairs are some of the most senior members of the Senate. Three are octogenarians and only one will be woman. The gavel of the powerful Appropriations panel, responsible for drafting about 33 percent  of the entire federal budget, will return to Mississippi's Thad Cochran, 77. Cochran was has been a big practitioner of earmarks, home-state goodies such as highway projects, economic development grants and university research dollars. GOP leaders have banned earmarking, but Cochran is likely to back Navy shipbuilding efforts since Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, which makes a variety of Navy ships, is Mississippi's largest private employer. (Source: The Associated Press, 01/05/15)