New Appropriations Chair

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) will be the next chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Mikulski, selected by her Democratic Caucus colleagues this afternoon, is the first woman and the first senator from Maryland to head the committee, according to a statement. She succeeds Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), who died on Monday.

Whether Mikulski will also replace Inouye as chair of the defense subcommittee remains to be seen.

"Subcommittee assignments will be announced once the new Senate has organized (hopefully in January)," a committee spokeswoman told InsideDefense.com in an email.