The head of the House Appropriations Committee yesterday said he expects fewer policy riders to be included in spending legislation in the new Congress than in the one that just ended -- including those designed to rein in environmental programs. Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said in a brief interview with E&E Daily that he hopes the focus will remain on spending when Congress moves legislation in the coming months to resolve government and mandatory spending issues and raise the federal debt limit, not on extraneous issues.

Agencies won't immediately enact furloughs if Congress fails to prevent the across-the-board budget cuts scheduled to begin in the new year, according to an email the White House sent to government officials and union leaders this morning.

The death Monday of Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) isn't setting off that many dominoes after all. Rather than undertaking a major shuffling of committee leadership, Senate Democrats instead decided to make history and today will tap Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski to be the new Appropriations chairwoman. After a formal meeting of the Senate Democratic Caucus this afternoon, Mikulski will become the first woman to run an appropriations panel in either chamber of Congress.