Business Blog

Roger Wicker, Mississippi’s junior senator, helped lead Washington Post opinion writer Dana Milbank to this conclusion on the nasty politics that marked Chuck Hagel’s road to confirmation as secretary of defense Tuesday: The confirmation,  “ended as it began — with a smear.” Sen. Thad Cochran, Wicker’s senior Mississippi counterpart, restored some balance by joining three [...]

Several media reports have listed Mississippi’s Thad Cochran as among at least two Senate Republicans who will support allowing a full Senate vote to confirm Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. Late Thursday afternoon, Senate Democrats were forcing a vote to end debate on the nomination of Hagel, bringing to a head a showdown over the [...]

Southern agriculture producers who argue new farm legislation needs more regional balance have notched a victory with selection of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi as Ranking Republican Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry for the 113th Congress: Cochran, a member of the committee for more than three decades and chairman [...]

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker received assignments today to five Senate committees for the 113th Congress. Mississippi’s junior senator remains on the Armed Services Committee and the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. In addition, he will serve on the Budget Committee; the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee; and the Joint Economic Committee (JEC). “These committees [...]

Mississippi farmers are waiting to learn whether the Magnolia State’s senior senator will move to the Senate Agriculture Committee and have a key hand in shaping a new farm bill extension as the ag panel’s Ranking Republican member. AgFax.com reported shortly before Christmas on speculation that Sen. Thad Cochran was mulling a move to become [...]

  Forgive Mississippi’s veterans if they don’t return the insincere salutes rendered this Veterans Day by senators Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran. Veterans returning from a decade of conflict face unemployment in numbers at least 10 percent higher than the rest of us. They need help. The $1 billion Veterans Jobs Corps Act was designed [...]

Agricultural programs could be cut by $30 billion to $35 billion in the 2012 farm bill, warned Carlisle Clarke, legislative assistant to Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., in an interview with The Southeast Farm Press. “Last fall, in the debt ceiling discussions, each congressional committee was charged with offering up a package of cuts for programs [...]