WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.580 Welcome back. Today, we've got a deep dive custom 00:00:02.580 --> 00:00:05.639 tailored just for you. We really do. And it's 00:00:05.639 --> 00:00:08.339 a fascinating one. It is. We are setting out 00:00:08.339 --> 00:00:11.480 on a very specific mission today, demystifying 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:14.419 the single most powerful group in the United 00:00:14.419 --> 00:00:17.120 States Senate. The power players. Right. We are 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:19.079 talking about the United States Senate Committee 00:00:19.079 --> 00:00:23.210 on Appropriations. Which I know. Yeah, I know 00:00:23.210 --> 00:00:24.629 what you might be thinking listening to this. 00:00:24.750 --> 00:00:28.530 It sounds dry. Exactly. The word appropriations 00:00:28.530 --> 00:00:32.530 sounds like the kind of dry bureaucratic jargon 00:00:32.530 --> 00:00:35.070 designed to make your eyes glaze over. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:35.170 --> 00:00:37.009 It sounds like an accounting club hidden in the 00:00:37.009 --> 00:00:39.439 basement of the Capitol. Right. But. The stack 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:41.700 of notes and historical data we have today paints 00:00:41.700 --> 00:00:44.380 a wildly different picture. Let's unpack this, 00:00:44.500 --> 00:00:47.200 because while it might sound boring, this committee 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:49.960 is actually the ultimate control room for the 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:52.380 entire U .S. government. It truly is. It's the 00:00:52.380 --> 00:00:54.960 engine room of the federal apparatus. Everything 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:57.140 that happens in Washington, every dollar that 00:00:57.140 --> 00:00:59.439 moves essentially runs through these doors. To 00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:02.560 really grasp why this specific committee holds 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:05.040 the keys to the kingdom, you have to look at 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:08.359 the foundational why. of its existence. The history 00:01:08.359 --> 00:01:10.739 of it. Yeah. It goes straight back to the bedrock 00:01:10.739 --> 00:01:13.439 of the country. Article 1, Section 9, Clause 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:16.239 7 of the U .S. Constitution. The founders were 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:19.180 terrified of a monarch with a blank checkbook. 00:01:19.379 --> 00:01:22.579 Exactly. So the text makes it explicitly clear 00:01:22.579 --> 00:01:25.140 that no money can be drawn from the Treasury 00:01:25.140 --> 00:01:28.719 without appropriations made by law. Meaning Congress 00:01:28.719 --> 00:01:31.840 has to approve it. Right. Furthermore, they demanded 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:34.560 that a regular statement and account of the receipts 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:37.260 and expenditures of all public money be published 00:01:37.260 --> 00:01:40.060 from time to time. It's like they hardwired a 00:01:40.060 --> 00:01:42.700 failsafe right into the system. The Treasury 00:01:42.700 --> 00:01:44.799 isn't just some open vault for whoever happens 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:46.939 to be sitting in the Oval Office. That's the 00:01:46.939 --> 00:01:49.359 core of it. You cannot spend a single dime of 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:51.680 the taxpayers' money unless a legislative body 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:54.739 explicitly passes a law saying you can. If we 00:01:54.739 --> 00:01:57.030 connect this to the bigger picture, you start 00:01:57.030 --> 00:01:59.549 to see the genius of this mechanism. It's a massive 00:01:59.549 --> 00:02:03.329 check and balance. An immovable one. It intentionally 00:02:03.329 --> 00:02:06.329 separates the power of spending from the executive 00:02:06.329 --> 00:02:10.259 branch. meaning the president and the sprawling 00:02:10.259 --> 00:02:13.180 alphabet soup of federal agencies. They don't 00:02:13.180 --> 00:02:15.580 actually hold the purse strings. Exactly. It 00:02:15.580 --> 00:02:18.479 places that power squarely in the hands of Congress. 00:02:18.699 --> 00:02:21.360 The executive branch might draft a million ambitious 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:24.240 plans, but they can't execute a single one of 00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:26.439 them if Congress refuses to write the check. 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:29.659 The ultimate veto. It is universally known as 00:02:29.659 --> 00:02:32.180 the power of the purse, and it's the absolute 00:02:32.180 --> 00:02:35.150 source. of this committee's institutional gravity. 00:02:35.370 --> 00:02:37.710 What's wild to consider, though, is that this 00:02:37.710 --> 00:02:40.110 hyper -focused committee didn't even exist at 00:02:40.110 --> 00:02:42.050 the dawn of the Republic. That's right. For the 00:02:42.050 --> 00:02:44.750 first several decades, this world -altering power 00:02:44.750 --> 00:02:47.349 over the purse sat with the Finance Committee. 00:02:47.629 --> 00:02:49.610 They were doing double duty. Yeah, handling both 00:02:49.610 --> 00:02:51.550 the money coming in and the money going out. 00:02:51.870 --> 00:02:55.229 It wasn't until March 6, 1867, that the Appropriations 00:02:55.229 --> 00:02:57.449 Committee was officially spun off to handle the 00:02:57.449 --> 00:02:59.469 spending exclusively. Which makes sense when 00:02:59.469 --> 00:03:01.069 you think about the historical context there. 00:03:01.169 --> 00:03:03.900 Post -Civil War. Right. It's post -Civil War. 00:03:04.180 --> 00:03:07.120 The nation is expanding westward and the government 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:09.560 is transforming from a small administrative body 00:03:09.560 --> 00:03:13.280 into an industrial era behemoth. So splitting 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:15.460 that power wasn't just administrative housekeeping. 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:18.599 No, not at all. It was an acknowledgment that 00:03:18.599 --> 00:03:21.020 funding the nation had become the most complex 00:03:21.020 --> 00:03:23.740 job in Washington. Taking the check out of the 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:25.800 hands of the Finance Committee and creating a 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:28.539 standalone Appropriations Committee fundamentally 00:03:28.539 --> 00:03:31.729 shifted the power dynamics in the Senate. From 00:03:31.729 --> 00:03:35.689 1867 onward, this new entity became the central 00:03:35.689 --> 00:03:38.069 hub where the ultimate priorities of the nation 00:03:38.069 --> 00:03:41.490 were fiercely debated and decided. Because, as 00:03:41.490 --> 00:03:43.689 the saying goes, a policy is just a piece of 00:03:43.689 --> 00:03:46.590 paper until it's funded. Exactly. Let's get into 00:03:46.590 --> 00:03:48.590 the actual mechanics of that funding because 00:03:48.590 --> 00:03:50.849 this is where the theory hits reality for you 00:03:50.849 --> 00:03:53.340 listening. The nuts and bolts. Right. When we 00:03:53.340 --> 00:03:55.159 talk about the federal budget, it's easy to get 00:03:55.159 --> 00:03:57.180 lost in the trillions. I've heard it compared 00:03:57.180 --> 00:03:58.979 to a household budget, you know, sitting around 00:03:58.979 --> 00:04:01.180 the kitchen table figuring out groceries, but... 00:04:01.629 --> 00:04:03.569 That's a bit too simple for what we're talking 00:04:03.569 --> 00:04:05.569 about here. Way too simple. Think of it more 00:04:05.569 --> 00:04:08.629 like a massive multinational corporation. You 00:04:08.629 --> 00:04:11.009 have your fixed overhead. Social Security, Medicare. 00:04:11.349 --> 00:04:13.270 Yeah, the bills that auto draft every month, 00:04:13.310 --> 00:04:16.269 regardless of what management does. That's mandatory 00:04:16.269 --> 00:04:18.689 spending. The Appropriations Committee doesn't 00:04:18.689 --> 00:04:20.870 touch that. They control the discretionary spending. 00:04:21.129 --> 00:04:24.350 Right. That's the R &D budget, the new acquisitions, 00:04:24.350 --> 00:04:27.449 the marketing. They decide whether we are building 00:04:27.449 --> 00:04:30.170 a new fleet of submarines or... doubling the 00:04:30.170 --> 00:04:32.709 budget for national parks. And that's the crucial 00:04:32.709 --> 00:04:35.829 distinction. Discretionary spending is the money 00:04:35.829 --> 00:04:38.649 that dictates the actual day -to -day direction 00:04:38.649 --> 00:04:41.129 of the country. And to manage this incredibly 00:04:41.129 --> 00:04:44.149 complex corporate ledger, the committee relies 00:04:44.149 --> 00:04:47.420 on a strict division of labor. carved up into 00:04:47.420 --> 00:04:50.399 12 distinct subcommittees. 12 different power 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:52.180 centers. You have a subcommittee for defense, 00:04:52.500 --> 00:04:54.879 another for homeland security, one for agriculture. 00:04:55.180 --> 00:04:57.740 It covers every square inch of the federal footprint. 00:04:57.980 --> 00:05:01.519 And they operate on a timeline that is, at least 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:04.379 in theory, highly regimented. In theory, being 00:05:04.379 --> 00:05:07.120 the operative phrase there. Right. The process 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:10.399 is supposed to flow like this. First, an analogous 00:05:10.399 --> 00:05:13.029 but separate entity. The Senate Budget Committee 00:05:13.029 --> 00:05:16.430 drafts a congressional budget resolution. Setting 00:05:16.430 --> 00:05:20.050 the overarching spending ceiling. Exactly. Then 00:05:20.050 --> 00:05:22.290 the Full Appropriations Committee takes that 00:05:22.290 --> 00:05:25.149 top line number and sets allocations for each 00:05:25.149 --> 00:05:28.050 of the 12 subcommittees. And from there, each 00:05:28.050 --> 00:05:30.810 subcommittee develops a draft bill covering every 00:05:30.810 --> 00:05:33.629 single federal agency under its specific jurisdiction. 00:05:33.949 --> 00:05:36.110 But they are bound by those initial ceilings, 00:05:36.110 --> 00:05:38.029 correct? They can't just decide to double the 00:05:38.029 --> 00:05:40.449 defense budget if the allocation doesn't support 00:05:40.449 --> 00:05:42.649 it. They are generally bound by them, yeah, but 00:05:42.649 --> 00:05:45.730 there is a notable loophole. Oh. The full Senate 00:05:45.730 --> 00:05:47.889 can actually vote to waive those spending limits 00:05:47.889 --> 00:05:51.670 if 60 senators agree to do so. Ah, the 60 -vote 00:05:51.670 --> 00:05:55.089 threshold. That's a high bar. It is, but it exists. 00:05:55.329 --> 00:05:57.829 Once those 12 draft bills are negotiated and 00:05:57.829 --> 00:06:00.230 ready, they must be passed by both houses of 00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:02.430 Congress and then signed by the president. And 00:06:02.430 --> 00:06:04.490 the kicker is, all of this massive legislative 00:06:04.490 --> 00:06:07.370 maneuvering has to happen prior to the start 00:06:07.370 --> 00:06:09.410 of the federal fiscal year. Which falls on October 00:06:09.410 --> 00:06:14.529 1st. October 1st. The magical, perpetually missed 00:06:14.529 --> 00:06:17.449 deadline. Almost every time. Anyone who follows 00:06:17.449 --> 00:06:20.410 Washington even casually knows that hitting that 00:06:20.410 --> 00:06:24.269 October 1st target with 12 neatly wrapped appropriations 00:06:24.269 --> 00:06:27.250 bills is practically a myth at this point. The 00:06:27.250 --> 00:06:29.870 dysfunction there is undeniable. Missing that 00:06:29.870 --> 00:06:32.170 target has become the standard operating procedure 00:06:32.170 --> 00:06:34.709 in recent years. And the consequences are severe. 00:06:34.970 --> 00:06:37.850 Very. If they fail to pass the individual bills 00:06:37.850 --> 00:06:41.029 by October 1st, the government technically has 00:06:41.029 --> 00:06:43.649 zero discretionary funding to operate. So to 00:06:43.649 --> 00:06:46.470 prevent a total catastrophic shutdown of federal 00:06:46.470 --> 00:06:48.930 services, the committee has to draft what is 00:06:48.930 --> 00:06:51.329 called a continuing resolution. The infamous 00:06:51.329 --> 00:06:54.509 CR. Which is essentially a legislative shrug. 00:06:54.509 --> 00:06:56.430 It's Congress saying, we haven't figured out 00:06:56.430 --> 00:06:58.449 the budget for next year yet, so just keep spending 00:06:58.449 --> 00:07:00.410 exactly what you spent last month on the exact 00:07:00.410 --> 00:07:02.990 same things until we sort it out. That's perfectly 00:07:02.990 --> 00:07:05.949 put. It is a temporary stopgap measure approved 00:07:05.949 --> 00:07:08.430 by Congress and signed by the president just 00:07:08.430 --> 00:07:11.100 to keep the lights on. But operating a multi 00:07:11.100 --> 00:07:14.220 -trillion dollar superpower on temporary stopgaps 00:07:14.220 --> 00:07:17.759 freezes new contracts, stalls military planning, 00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:20.660 and generally creates chaos for federal agencies. 00:07:20.980 --> 00:07:23.339 They can't plan past the end of the month. Which 00:07:23.339 --> 00:07:25.660 brings us to a really telling era of reform, 00:07:25.980 --> 00:07:29.480 the 110th Congress. They actually tried to fix 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:31.980 this deeply entrenched dysfunction. They made 00:07:31.980 --> 00:07:35.160 a massive structural attempt. At the outset of 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:38.240 the 110th Congress, we saw a major reorganization 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:40.500 effort driven by the leadership at the time. 00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:43.259 Right. Chair Robert Byrd from the Senate Appropriations 00:07:43.259 --> 00:07:46.220 Committee and his counterpart, Chair Dave Obey 00:07:46.220 --> 00:07:48.449 over on the House Appropriations Committee. They 00:07:48.449 --> 00:07:51.170 developed a comprehensive reorganizes plan that 00:07:51.170 --> 00:07:53.970 provided for common parallel subcommittee structures 00:07:53.970 --> 00:07:56.709 between both the House and the Senate. Which, 00:07:56.829 --> 00:07:58.449 when you think about it, is stunning that it 00:07:58.449 --> 00:08:01.430 wasn't already the case. Seriously. If the House 00:08:01.430 --> 00:08:03.910 is organizing their funding bills by agency X 00:08:03.910 --> 00:08:06.769 and Y and the Senate is grouping agency Y and 00:08:06.769 --> 00:08:09.910 Z together, trying to merge those competing bills 00:08:09.910 --> 00:08:12.350 in a reconciliation conference at the 11th hour 00:08:12.350 --> 00:08:14.529 is a logistical nightmare. They were speaking 00:08:14.529 --> 00:08:16.389 two different structural languages. Exactly. 00:08:16.410 --> 00:08:19.279 The explicitly stated. goal of both Chair Byrd 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:22.600 and Chair Obey was to streamline the labyrinthine 00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:25.399 process so Congress could actually complete action 00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:27.899 on each of the government funding bills on time. 00:08:28.019 --> 00:08:31.100 And the context here is just staggering. They 00:08:31.100 --> 00:08:34.000 were implementing this overhaul, hoping to achieve 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:36.779 on -time funding for the first time since 1994. 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:40.399 Since 1994. It took them over a decade just to 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:42.120 figure out how to structure their own internal 00:08:42.120 --> 00:08:44.909 meetings to get a bill passed on schedule. As 00:08:44.909 --> 00:08:46.889 part of this drive for efficiency, they consolidated 00:08:46.889 --> 00:08:49.850 power slightly, reducing the total number of 00:08:49.850 --> 00:08:52.769 subcommittees from 13 down to the 12 we have 00:08:52.769 --> 00:08:55.929 today. And a key outcome of that specific reorganization 00:08:55.929 --> 00:08:59.230 was the establishment of a brand new subcommittee. 00:08:59.389 --> 00:09:02.049 The Subcommittee on Financial Services and General 00:09:02.049 --> 00:09:04.929 Government. Yes. This was a major consolidation 00:09:04.929 --> 00:09:07.389 effort. It brought together funding for the Treasury 00:09:07.389 --> 00:09:09.570 Department, the United States Federal Judiciary, 00:09:09.870 --> 00:09:12.529 and the District of Columbia. Prior to the 110th 00:09:12.529 --> 00:09:14.629 Congress, those critical functions were handled 00:09:14.629 --> 00:09:17.230 by two completely separate Senate subcommittees. 00:09:17.370 --> 00:09:20.889 Right. By bringing them under one roof, they 00:09:20.889 --> 00:09:23.789 simplified the jurisdiction and aligned it perfectly 00:09:23.789 --> 00:09:26.289 with the House's architecture. Here's where it 00:09:26.289 --> 00:09:28.980 gets really interesting. Because you can't talk 00:09:28.980 --> 00:09:30.919 about the structure of the Appropriations Committee 00:09:30.919 --> 00:09:34.240 without talking about the raw, unfiltered political 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:37.360 leverage of the committee chair. This is a huge 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:39.600 piece of the puzzle. Now, I want to make something 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:42.190 very clear to you as we get into this. When we 00:09:42.190 --> 00:09:44.950 look at historical earmarks, we are just analyzing 00:09:44.950 --> 00:09:47.610 the raw math from the historical record. Absolutely. 00:09:47.950 --> 00:09:50.850 We are not taking a political stance or endorsing 00:09:50.850 --> 00:09:53.990 the practice either way. We are neutrally reporting 00:09:53.990 --> 00:09:56.710 on how this works because the leverage a chair 00:09:56.710 --> 00:09:59.649 holds to direct localized spending is staggering. 00:09:59.970 --> 00:10:02.549 This is what's informally known as pork barrel 00:10:02.549 --> 00:10:04.870 spending. The mechanics of that leverage are 00:10:04.870 --> 00:10:08.230 straightforward but immensely powerful. The chair 00:10:08.230 --> 00:10:10.029 of the Appropriations Committee holds enormous 00:10:10.029 --> 00:10:12.830 authority to bring home special hyper localized 00:10:12.830 --> 00:10:15.450 projects for their own state. And beyond that, 00:10:15.529 --> 00:10:18.149 the chair has the ultimate say on the appropriation 00:10:18.149 --> 00:10:21.110 requests made by all the other 99 senators. Think 00:10:21.110 --> 00:10:24.370 about that. When you literally hold the pen that 00:10:24.370 --> 00:10:26.330 writes the checks for everyone else's political 00:10:26.330 --> 00:10:29.470 priorities back home, your influence over the 00:10:29.470 --> 00:10:32.279 chamber is nearly absolute. The numbers from 00:10:32.279 --> 00:10:35.240 2005 illustrate this perfectly based on our source 00:10:35.240 --> 00:10:38.580 material. At that time, the committee chair was 00:10:38.580 --> 00:10:41.279 Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska. Right. 00:10:41.379 --> 00:10:44.259 Because he held that gavel, the per capita federal 00:10:44.259 --> 00:10:47.799 spending in his home state of Alaska skyrocketed 00:10:47.799 --> 00:10:50.860 to $12 ,000. Which was double the national average. 00:10:51.059 --> 00:10:54.179 One state pulling in twice as much federal money 00:10:54.179 --> 00:10:56.720 per person as the rest of the country, purely 00:10:56.720 --> 00:10:58.379 because their senator was running the engine 00:10:58.379 --> 00:11:01.440 room. This specific breakdown of those 2005 numbers 00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:04.220 really underscores the sheer scale of the operation. 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:09.539 In that fiscal year, Alaska secured 11 ,772 special 00:11:09.539 --> 00:11:12.159 earmarked projects. 11 ,000. Think about the 00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:14.639 logistical effort of inserting nearly 12 ,000 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:17.259 specific line items into a federal budget. The 00:11:17.259 --> 00:11:19.320 combined cost of those specific projects was 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:26.909 $15 ,780 ,623. Almost $16 billion in special 00:11:26.909 --> 00:11:29.730 projects funneled to a single relatively low 00:11:29.730 --> 00:11:32.309 population state. And what really puts the nail 00:11:32.309 --> 00:11:34.610 in the coffin is the context of the larger legislative 00:11:34.610 --> 00:11:38.970 vehicle. How so? Congress passed a massive Consolidated 00:11:38.970 --> 00:11:42.940 Appropriations Act in 2005. It was an omnibus 00:11:42.940 --> 00:11:45.600 bill rolling multiple funding measures together 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:50.419 that totaled $388 billion. Okay. Those special 00:11:50.419 --> 00:11:53.320 earmarked projects for Alaska alone represented 00:11:53.320 --> 00:11:56.299 about 4 % of the overall spending in that massive 00:11:56.299 --> 00:12:00.279 national bill. 4 % of a $388 billion national 00:12:00.279 --> 00:12:02.980 budget dictated by the geographic allegiance 00:12:02.980 --> 00:12:06.480 of one committee chair. It is the literal definition 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:09.740 of the power of the purse in action. So what 00:12:09.740 --> 00:12:11.679 does this all mean? How does controlling the 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:14.440 discretionary budget translate into actual lasting 00:12:14.440 --> 00:12:16.799 political power within the hierarchy of the Senate 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:19.600 itself? It translates into the ultimate apprenticeship 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:21.940 for running the entire chamber. There is a striking 00:12:21.940 --> 00:12:24.559 statistic that perfectly captures this dynamic. 00:12:25.149 --> 00:12:27.990 There really is. If you analyze the two decades 00:12:27.990 --> 00:12:32.289 spanning from 2001 to 2021, every single Senate 00:12:32.289 --> 00:12:35.769 majority leader was either a previous or a concurrently 00:12:35.769 --> 00:12:37.570 serving member of the Appropriations Committee. 00:12:37.750 --> 00:12:40.090 Every single one, the people who rides to the 00:12:40.090 --> 00:12:42.509 very top, the ones who dictate the schedule and 00:12:42.509 --> 00:12:45.149 the fate of every piece of legislation, all cut 00:12:45.149 --> 00:12:47.090 their teeth on the committee that controls the 00:12:47.090 --> 00:12:49.600 money. You look at Tom Daschle. He was a committee 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:51.779 member in the 90s, learning the ropes before 00:12:51.779 --> 00:12:54.299 becoming majority leader in 2001. Then you have 00:12:54.299 --> 00:12:56.720 Bill Frist, who sat on the committee from 1995 00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:59.720 to 2002 before taking over as majority leader. 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:02.200 And the pattern is completely bipartisan. Yeah. 00:13:02.259 --> 00:13:04.779 Harry Reid was a committee member from 1989 all 00:13:04.779 --> 00:13:08.019 the way to 2006, which overlaps seamlessly with 00:13:08.019 --> 00:13:10.179 his time as majority leader beginning in 2007. 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:12.840 And Mitch McConnell. who served as majority leader 00:13:12.840 --> 00:13:16.299 from 2015 to 2021, was concurrently serving on 00:13:16.299 --> 00:13:18.279 the Appropriations Committee during his entire 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:20.620 leadership tenure. The correlation is impossible 00:13:20.620 --> 00:13:23.519 to ignore. Navigating the flow of federal dollars 00:13:23.519 --> 00:13:25.820 is functionally a prerequisite for leading the 00:13:25.820 --> 00:13:27.720 Senate. It makes total sense when you map it 00:13:27.720 --> 00:13:30.659 out. It does. If you know the intimate details 00:13:30.659 --> 00:13:33.179 of how the 12 subcommies operate, if you know 00:13:33.179 --> 00:13:35.679 how to navigate the discretionary spending limits 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:38.320 and the 60 boat waiver rules. And crucially, 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:40.799 if you have a long history of approving or denying 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:43.840 other senators pet projects. Yes. Yeah. You have 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:46.940 built an unbreakable web of leverage. You know 00:13:46.940 --> 00:13:49.639 exactly what every single senator needs to take 00:13:49.639 --> 00:13:52.259 back to their constituents. Exactly. Which brings 00:13:52.259 --> 00:13:55.360 us to today. Let's look at the current landscape. 00:13:55.600 --> 00:13:59.440 Today is Wednesday, March 4th, 2026, and we are 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:03.320 operating in the 119th Congress. Looking at the 00:14:03.320 --> 00:14:06.340 rosters for the 119th Congress, it remains the 00:14:06.340 --> 00:14:08.480 largest, most sought after committee in the Senate. 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:11.559 Currently, it holds 29 members. Interestingly, 00:14:11.779 --> 00:14:14.259 this is down slightly from recent years. The 00:14:14.259 --> 00:14:17.580 data notes it had 30 members back in the 117th 00:14:17.580 --> 00:14:20.669 Congress. But even at 29. That is nearly a third 00:14:20.669 --> 00:14:23.129 of the entire United States Senate sitting on 00:14:23.129 --> 00:14:25.309 this one single committee. The current leadership 00:14:25.309 --> 00:14:28.049 dynamic for the 119th Congress features Susan 00:14:28.049 --> 00:14:30.649 Collins, a Republican from Maine, serving as 00:14:30.649 --> 00:14:32.909 the chair, holding the gavel. And Patty Murray, 00:14:33.129 --> 00:14:35.549 a Democrat from Washington, serves as the vice 00:14:35.549 --> 00:14:38.909 chair. The makeup of those 29 seats is incredibly 00:14:38.909 --> 00:14:41.769 tight, reflecting the razor thin margins of the 00:14:41.769 --> 00:14:44.230 broader chamber. It is. The committee is split 00:14:44.230 --> 00:14:47.440 with a very narrow majority. 15 Republicans and 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:51.340 14 Democrats. A one seat margin, 15 to 14. You 00:14:51.340 --> 00:14:53.019 can only imagine the pressure cooker environment 00:14:53.019 --> 00:14:55.500 in those markup sessions. What's fascinating 00:14:55.500 --> 00:14:58.059 here is how the leadership of this specific committee 00:14:58.059 --> 00:15:01.639 requires navigating those incredibly tight margins 00:15:01.639 --> 00:15:05.299 to fund the entire federal apparatus. Because 00:15:05.299 --> 00:15:07.539 there's no wiggle room. Right. When you only 00:15:07.539 --> 00:15:09.820 have a one -seat majority in the committee, every 00:15:09.820 --> 00:15:13.000 single vote, every single minor compromise on 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:15.659 every one of those 12 subcommittee bills becomes 00:15:15.659 --> 00:15:19.019 a high -stakes, breathless negotiation. A single 00:15:19.019 --> 00:15:21.720 senator holding out over a localized issue can 00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:24.460 stall the entire federal budget. There is virtually 00:15:24.460 --> 00:15:27.279 no room for error or defection if you want to 00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:29.539 pass a budget at a committee. Especially when 00:15:29.539 --> 00:15:31.519 you remember the broader Senate rules, you have 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:34.779 a committee split 15 to 14 trying to draft bills 00:15:34.779 --> 00:15:37.039 that eventually need to survive the full chamber. 00:15:37.179 --> 00:15:39.299 If they need to waive spending limits, they need 00:15:39.299 --> 00:15:42.100 60 votes. They have to engineer legislation that 00:15:42.100 --> 00:15:45.879 can bridge massive partisan divides just to avoid 00:15:45.879 --> 00:15:48.980 triggering those catastrophic continuing resolutions 00:15:48.980 --> 00:15:51.639 we talked about earlier. This raises an important 00:15:51.639 --> 00:15:53.799 question for you, the listener, to consider. 00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:57.730 What stands out to you? about how a relatively 00:15:57.730 --> 00:16:01.830 small group of 29 people ultimately decides the 00:16:01.830 --> 00:16:04.429 financial priorities of an entire nation. It's 00:16:04.429 --> 00:16:06.789 intense to think about. They are in those rooms 00:16:06.789 --> 00:16:09.129 right now, weighing the needs of defense against 00:16:09.129 --> 00:16:12.470 Homeland Security, balancing agricultural subsidies 00:16:12.470 --> 00:16:15.539 with the funding for the federal judiciary. It 00:16:15.539 --> 00:16:17.519 is an astonishing concentration of responsibility 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:19.940 placed on just over a quarter of the Senate. 00:16:20.059 --> 00:16:22.340 It really is. And that brings us to the end of 00:16:22.340 --> 00:16:24.919 our journey today. Let's recap what we've unpacked 00:16:24.919 --> 00:16:26.919 on this deep dive. We've covered a lot of ground. 00:16:27.100 --> 00:16:29.059 You've explored the constitutional origins of 00:16:29.059 --> 00:16:31.539 the power of the purse embedded in Article 1, 00:16:31.639 --> 00:16:34.419 Section 9. We traveled back to the committee's 00:16:34.419 --> 00:16:37.840 formation in 1867 when the post -Civil War boom 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:40.539 forced them to split the checkbook away from 00:16:40.539 --> 00:16:42.879 the Finance Committee. We broke down the massive 00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:45.779 12 -subcommittee corporate structure designed 00:16:45.779 --> 00:16:49.019 to handle discretionary spending. And the 110th 00:16:49.019 --> 00:16:51.960 Congress reorganization led by Byrd and Obey 00:16:51.960 --> 00:16:54.419 in a desperate bid to get things done on time. 00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:57.019 And of course, we examined the staggering localized 00:16:57.019 --> 00:16:59.340 power of the committee chair. Looking at the 00:16:59.340 --> 00:17:01.980 leverage and the billions in earmarks from 2005, 00:17:02.139 --> 00:17:05.940 right up to the razor thin 15 -14 margins defining 00:17:05.940 --> 00:17:09.339 the 119th Congress today. If there is one core 00:17:09.339 --> 00:17:11.799 takeaway we want to leave you with, it's why 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:14.289 this deeply matters to you. Understanding the 00:17:14.289 --> 00:17:16.390 Senate Appropriations Committee is the ultimate 00:17:16.390 --> 00:17:18.390 shortcut to understanding how things actually 00:17:18.390 --> 00:17:21.849 get done or how they spectacularly stall in Washington. 00:17:22.109 --> 00:17:24.930 It truly is the literal engine room. The president 00:17:24.930 --> 00:17:27.329 can give speeches and senators can draft ambitious 00:17:27.329 --> 00:17:30.309 policy papers, but absolutely nothing moves without 00:17:30.309 --> 00:17:32.349 this committee's authorization. It's the brutal 00:17:32.349 --> 00:17:34.849 difference between a politician making a campaign 00:17:34.849 --> 00:17:37.150 promise and that promise actually being funded 00:17:37.150 --> 00:17:39.329 and becoming a reality in your community. Exactly. 00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:42.779 But before we sign off, there is one last lingering 00:17:42.779 --> 00:17:44.720 piece to this puzzle that we really need to think 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:47.779 about. Yes, there is a broader implication here. 00:17:47.960 --> 00:17:50.900 We discussed earlier how the Constitution intentionally 00:17:50.900 --> 00:17:53.980 gave Congress the power of the purse to keep 00:17:53.980 --> 00:17:56.740 the executive branch in check. It was a brilliant 00:17:56.740 --> 00:17:59.420 structural design to ensure the president couldn't 00:17:59.420 --> 00:18:01.319 just spend money without the legislative branch 00:18:01.319 --> 00:18:04.240 agreeing to it. But we also discussed the modern 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:08.000 reality. Congress continually relies on those 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:10.599 continuing resolutions because they constantly 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:14.339 miss that October 1st deadline to pass specific 00:18:14.339 --> 00:18:18.019 new appropriations bills. Right. This leaves 00:18:18.019 --> 00:18:21.019 us with a profound question to ponder. If Congress 00:18:21.019 --> 00:18:23.779 continually defaults to passing continuing resolutions, 00:18:24.220 --> 00:18:26.079 does that essentially put the nation's financial 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:29.180 priorities on autopilot? Just coasting. By failing 00:18:29.180 --> 00:18:31.839 to pass new specific appropriations bills on 00:18:31.839 --> 00:18:34.640 time, is Congress unintentionally handing power 00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:37.160 back to the executive branch and unelected agencies? 00:18:37.599 --> 00:18:39.660 Essentially telling them to just keep doing what 00:18:39.660 --> 00:18:41.880 they were doing yesterday. Right. Thereby bypassing 00:18:41.880 --> 00:18:43.839 their own constitutional check and balance. Wow. 00:18:44.140 --> 00:18:47.119 That is a profound puzzle. If you refuse to make 00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:49.460 new decisions, you are basically forfeiting your 00:18:49.460 --> 00:18:51.640 leverage by default. Something to really think 00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:54.029 about. Thank you so much for joining us on this 00:18:54.029 --> 00:18:57.029 deep dive. It's been an incredible ride unpacking 00:18:57.029 --> 00:18:58.789 the realities of the Appropriations Committee 00:18:58.789 --> 00:19:01.690 with you. Remember to keep questioning the systems 00:19:01.690 --> 00:19:03.750 that run our world and we'll catch you next time.