Murkowski plans to seek top GOP spot on Senate Appropriations Committee

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) plans to lead Republicans on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.

Murkowski will seek the ranking member position on Appropriations, her office confirmed to The Hill, after current Chair Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) lost her reelection bid last week . Murkowski, a moderate Republican who often bucks her party, will need to work with Democrats to fund the government as they remain hellbent on reigning in President Trump’s agenda.

Senate Republicans won’t decide on committee leadership for some time, but Murkwoski’s seniority typically gives her first grabs at the top slot. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) is reportedly planning to challenge the Alaska Senator for the ranking position when the conference votes early next year.

Murkowski has been the most senior Republican on the Senate Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee for over a decade. She has criticized her party for passing multi-year party line funding bills and has called the appropriations process “broken,” something she’d like to fix.

In an interview with local Alaska radio station KNOM last week, Murkowski expressed her disappointment that Collins lost her reelection and spoke about the opportunity it gives her on Appropriations.

“What I really want to try to help advance is a way that we can address what has become more of a broken process in the Congress and how we can actually do the job that people have sent us there to do,” Murkowski said.