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U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations is a standing committee of the United States Senate. It is charged with managing budget and federal funding 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 generally recognized as one of the most powerful committees in the Senate. It was first organized on March 6, 1867, when power over appropriations was taken out of the hands of the Finance Committee. The current chairman of the committee is Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska, and the ranking minority member is Robert C. Byrd, a Democrat from West Virginia.
The chairman of the Appropriations Committee has enormous power to bring home special projects for his or her state. For instance, in fiscal year 2005 per capita federal spending in Alaska, the home state of Ted Stevens, is $12,000 a year, double the national average. Alaska alone in 2005 has 11,772 special earmarked projects for a combined cost of $15,780,623,000. That is about 4 percent of the overall spending in the $388 billion Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005 passed by Congress.
Members The current members are as follows:
Subcommittees It has the following subcommittees:
Chairmen of the Appropriations Committee, 1867-present
External link - U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations Official Website (http://appropriations.senate.gov/)
- New York Times article on Alaska pork (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/politics/21spend.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position/)
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