U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations

The U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations is a standing committee of the United States Senate. It has jurisdiction over all discretionary spending legislation in the Senate.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is the largest committee in the U.S. Senate, consisting of 28 members. Its role is defined by the U.S. Constitution, which requires "appropriations made by law" prior to the expenditure of any money from the Treasury, and is therefore one of the most powerful committees in the Senate. The committee was first organized on March 6, 1867, when power over appropriations was taken out of the hands of the Finance Committee. Thad Cochran, a Republican from Mississippi, chairs this committee and Robert C. Byrd, a Democrat from West Virginia serves as ranking member.

The chairman of the Appropriations Committee has enormous power to bring home special projects (sometimes referred to as "pork barrel spending") for his or her state. For example, in fiscal year 2005 per capita federal spending in Alaska, the home state of then-Chairman Ted Stevens, is $12,000, double the national average. Alaska has 11,772 special earmarked projects for a combined cost of $15,780,623,000. This represents about 4 percent of the overall spending in the $388 billion Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005 passed by Congress.

Contents
1 Members
2 Subcommittees
3 Chairmen of the Appropriations Committee, 1867-present
4 External link
5 See Also

Members

The Chairman is in Bold and Italics, the Ranking Member is in Bold. The current members are as follows:

Name Party State
     Thad Cochran Republican Mississippi
     Wayne Allard Republican Colorado
     Robert F. Bennett Republican Utah
     Christopher Bond Republican Missouri
     Sam Brownback Republican Kansas
     Conrad Burns Republican Montana
     Larry Craig Republican Idaho
     Mike DeWine Republican Ohio
     Pete Domenici Republican New Mexico
     Judd Gregg Republican New Hampshire
     Kay Bailey Hutchinson Republican Texas
     Mitch McConnell Republican Kentucky
     Richard Shelby Republican Alabama
     Arlen Specter Republican Pennsylvania
     Ted Stevens Republican Alaska
     Robert Byrd Democratic West Virginia
     Byron Dorgan Democratic North Dakota
     Richard Durbin Democratic Illinois
     Dianne Feinstein Democratic California
     Tom Harkin Democratic Iowa
     Daniel Inouye Democratic Hawaii
     Tim Johnson Democratic South Dakota
     Herb Kohl Democratic Wisconsin
     Mary Landrieu Democratic Louisiana
     Patrick Leahy Democratic Vermont
     Barbara Mikulski Democratic Maryland
     Patty Murray Democratic Washington
     Harry Reid Democratic Nevada

Subcommittees

It has the following subcommittees:

Chairmen of the Appropriations Committee, 1867-present

Name Party State Years
     Lot M. Morrill Republican Maine 1867–1869
     William P. Fessenden Republican Maine 1869
     Lot M. Morrill Republican Maine 1869–1871
     Cornelius Cole Republican California 1871–1873
     Lot M. Morrill Republican Maine 1873–1876
     William Windom Republican Minnesota 1876–1879
     Henry G. Davis Democratic West Virginia 1879–1881
     William B. Allison Republican Iowa 1881–1893
     Francis M. Cockrell Democratic Missouri 1893–1895
     William B. Allison Republican Iowa 1895–1908

External link

See Also


U.S. Congressional Committees Missing image
Us_flag_large.png
Flag of the United States

House Agriculture | Appropriations | Armed Services | Budget | Education and the Workforce | Energy and Commerce | Financial Services | Government Reform | Homeland Security | House Administration | International Relations | Judiciary | Resources | Rules | Science | Small Business | Standards of Official Conduct | Transportation and Infrastructure | Veterans' Affairs | Ways and Means | Intelligence (Permanent Select)
Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry | Appropriations | Armed Services | Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs | Budget | Commerce, Science and Transportation | Energy and Natural Resources | Environment and Public Works | Finance | Foreign Relations | Governmental Affairs | Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions | Judiciary | Rules and Administration | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | Veterans' Affairs | Indian Affairs (Other) | Ethics (Select) | Intelligence (Select) | Aging (Special)
Joint Economic | Library | Printing | Taxation
edit

See also: U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, 1867, 2005, Alabama