A Powerful Voice Pays Off for Maryland During Federal Budget Cuts.
Many members of Congress looked pretty helpless this week as they fought to save cherished programs in their states from across-the-board budget cuts.
But after Congress wrapped up work on a bill to fund the government through September, some members looked less helpless than others. Among them was Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat from Maryland.
Neither Mikulski nor Congress as a whole saved any agency from the $85 billion in cuts known as the "sequestration." But thanks to the committee she leads, some programs based in Maryland emerged better off this week than they were the week before: . . .
While they got funding from the committee, the agencies were still trying to figure out the precise gains in their budgets.
Asked about her results by Reuters, she said through a spokeswoman: "The good news is that Congress came together...preventing a (government) shutdown," Mikulski said. "In Maryland, that means NIH, NSA, FDA, NIST, Social Security and the other critical agencies are open and continuing their missions protecting national and community security and meeting compelling human needs."
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/03/22/us/politics/22reuters-usa-congress-mikulski.html?hp
