Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Chairman, Senate Appropriations Committee
The first Republican elected statewide in Mississippi since Reconstruction, Senator Cochran in his 26 years in the Senate has proven himself to be the quintessential insider and power-broker. Senator Cochran assumed the Chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee from a legal services supporter, Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), who handed over the Appropriations gavel because of term limitations Republicans now place on their committee leaders. Earlier in his career, Cochran was a practicing attorney with a demonstrated commitment to increasing access to justice. He chaired the legal services program of the Junior Bar in Jackson, Miss. He also presided over the Mississippi Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division, which teamed with the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project to coordinate pro bono representation for the poor.

Senator Richard C. Shelby (R-AL)
Chairman, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science
The new chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee with funding authority over LSC is known for his independent streak. First elected to the Senate in 1986 after eight years in the House of Representatives, Shelby has been a zealous defender of consumer rights, leading federal efforts to crack down on predatory lending. He also authored the law that makes it a federal crime for parents to cross state lines to avoid paying child support. Shelby began his career by combining government service with the law, serving as a city prosecutor in Tuscaloosa, U.S. Magistrate for the northern district of Alabama, and special assistant to the Alabama Attorney General. More recently, Shelby supported a 2003 fundraiser to help Alabama’s legal aid programs, contributing a dove recipe to a cookbook produced by the Alabama State Bar Volunteer Lawyers Project called “May It Please the Palate.”

Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD)
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science
In the wake of the reorganization of the number and jurisdictions of the Appropriations subcommittees, Senator Mikulski emerged as the ranking Democrat on the revamped Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee. Maryland’s junior Senator commands a considerable presence in the legislature’s upper chamber. Mikulski was first elected to Congress in 1976 and a decade later won her Senate seat. Before entering politics she was a social worker counseling at-risk kids in Baltimore. Today, she is the dean of the Senate women and, in addition to her position on Appropriations, is a senior member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which has oversight jurisdiction over LSC. During her long career in Congress, Mikulski has consistently supported LSC, most recently signing a Fiscal Year 2005 letter supporting a $13.6 million increase in federal funding for legal services.

Senator Michael B. Enzi (R-WY)
Chairman, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Wyoming’s junior senator is the new Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) that oversees LSC. Enzi has served on the HELP panel since arriving in Washington in 1997. He is the Senate’s only accountant, as well as having been a small-business owner and state legislator before his election to Congress. During his more than eight years in the Senate, Enzi has helped reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act to create a streamlined job training system for employers and workers. He has formed the Rural Education Caucus to ensure that small schools in remote areas are not overlooked in the federal education debate. He also has authored legislation to reform America’s medical justice system. Janet Millard, executive director of LSC-funded Wyoming Legal Services, says Enzi has intervened on the program’s behalf in the past. She believes his Chairmanship will be a positive development for those concerned with improving access to justice for the poor.

Representative Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Chairman, House Appropriations Committee
When term limits created a vacancy atop the House committee that controls all appropriated funds, House leaders turned to a veteran appropriator who previously led the Defense Appropri­ations and the VA-HUD-Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcom­mittees. Lewis, a member of Congress since 1978, is a fiscal conservative who has shown a willingness to shoot down federal spending that he views as wasteful, including military pet projects that consistently ran over budget. Like his counterpart in the Senate, Lewis is viewed as an insider more interested in reaching agreements and passing legislation than in seeking publicity.

Representative Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV)
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Science, State, Justice and Commerce and Related Agencies
When the Republicans took control of Congress during the 1994 midterm elections, it ended Mollohan’s brief, eight-month run as Chairman of LSC’s funding subcommittee. As a result of the consolidation of House Appropriations subcommittees, Mollohan returns as the top Democrat on LSC’s appropriations panel, which has been renamed the Science, State, Justice and Commerce Subcommittee. Mollohan has a record of success when it comes to averting funding cuts for legal services, successfully sponsoring a 1997 amendment on the House floor to restore $109 million in LSC funding that had been cut by the House Appropriations Committee. Mollohan is an attorney, having worked in private practice before his election to Congress in 1983.