Thad Cochran to chair Appropriations Committee

WASHINGTON – Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran will once again chair the powerful Appropriations Committee when Republicans take control of the Senate next month, GOP leaders announced Monday.

"We're just getting started,'' Cochran said last week about Republicans regaining the majority in the Senate.

Cochran said everyone will be looking to see how the appropriations process works under GOP control.

"I think it will make us a lot more careful and to ensure we don't waste money,'' he said. "We don't want to be embarrassed. So I think we're going to run a tight ship.''

Cochran chaired the Appropriations Committee, which allocates funding for federal programs and agencies, in 2005 and 2006 and was the panel's top GOP member until his term expired at the end of 2013.

He will continue to serve on the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee and the Rules and Administration Committee.

During his campaign for re-election this year, Cochran and his supporters touted his record of securing federal funds for Mississippi.

Republican leaders, including Gov. Phil Bryant, "made the case for Cochran, in part, based on his longstanding record of bringing the bacon back to Mississippi,'' said Rickey Hill, head of the political science department at Jackson State University.

Hill said "it will be business as usual'' with Cochran as committee chairman.

Mississippi groups and institutions that benefit from "Cochran's politicking in the Senate should do quite well with a Republican-controlled Senate,'' Hill said.

Cochran has made no apologies for his efforts to steer money to the state, which he has said desperately needs federal aid. Before the practice was banned in 2010, Cochran had a long history of steering federal money for special projects, or earmarks, to Mississippi.

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Cochran helped secure millions in federal funds for recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast and worked with other lawmakers to push for aid after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Republicans also announced that fellow Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker will serve on several committees, including Armed Services, Environment and Public Works, Commerce, Science and Transportation and Budget.

The committee assignments are formally approved next month when the new Congress convenes.

Contact Deborah Barfield Berry at dberry@gannett.com. Twitter: @dberrygannett