Hyde-Smith replaces late Sen. Graham on McConnell-led subcommittee
Mississippi’s junior senator has a new assignment.
On July 22, U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith accepted an appointment to the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, replacing Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died earlier this month.
According to a news release from her office, the move will give “Mississippi added prominence in Congress when developing funding for the nation’s national security interests.”
The appointment coincides with the House’s narrow passage of a $1.15 trillion military spending package late Wednesday, which will now head to the Senate.
Among the issues likely to come before Hyde-Smith’s new subcommittee are funding for military construction projects at Columbus Air Force Base and Mississippi National Guard facilities at Camp Shelby and Meridian. Additionally, the bill contains funding for Navy shipbuilding, missile defense, F-35 sustainment and other weapons programs built by companies with significant ties to Mississippi’s defense industry.
According to the Mississippi Development Authority, the defense industry, which includes major employers Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, is approximately 6.5 percent of Mississippi’s GDP.
Hyde-Smith, a Republican, also serves on the Senate Agriculture, Energy and Natural Resources and Appropriations, which her predecessor Sen. Thad Cochran chaired for many years. The Defense Appropriations subcommittee is chaired by Sen. Mitch McConnell, who was hospitalized after a serious fall on June 14 and has not been seen in public since. It is unclear how McConnell’s absence will affect the subcommittee’s work.
“I undertake this new assignment on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee with a measure of sadness for my dear colleague Lindsey Graham, but I am also resolved to serve as he did in support of our men and women in uniform,” Hyde-Smith said in the release.
The appointment amplifies Mississippi’s influence in military matters; the state’s senior U.S. senator, Roger Wicker, is currently chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.
Hyde-Smith is currently running for re-election against Democrat Scott Colom, a prosecutor from north Mississippi, and independent Ty Pinkins.
Image: Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, right, with Senate staff and colleagues, including fellow Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, seated (via Hyde-Smith’s official Facebook page)