Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said yesterday that she will not seek reelection in 2016, opening up the top Democratic slot on the powerful spending panel. Mikulski, 78, has spent the last 30 years in the Senate, becoming chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee in 2012. She lost the chairmanship last year when Republicans took control of the upper chamber, but she remained the ranking member, and her departure is sure to shuffle leadership on the committee. “This has been a hard decision to make,” Mikulski said during a press conference yesterday. “There’s no health problem. I’m not frustrated with the Senate.”
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