Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) is taking over the post of Ranking Member on the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee (SAC-D) from Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who was indicted Tuesday on seven felony charges.
The shift is not seen affecting the direction of defense spending much, particularly because Cochran is the ranking member of the full Senate Appropriations Committee.
Under Senate Republican Conference rules, if a chair or ranking member of a committee is indicted for a felony, the person must step down “until the case is resolved.”
If the senator is convicted, he “automatically” would be replaced, according to the rule.
The long-serving Alaska Republican was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on seven felony counts for allegedly failing to report gifts on financial disclosure forms.
He maintains his innocence.
Stevens said as recently as last week that the SAC-D was ready to mark up its fiscal year 2009 defense appropriations bill, and was simply waiting for House appropriators to act first.
The SAC-D is expected to hold a bill mark up in September, after lawmakers return from a five-week recess starting next week.