Senate Appropriations Committee Staff Biographies

Steven Cortese
Staff Director, Clerk

Cortese, 37, has been working for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, since 1986 and assumed his current post in 1997, when Stevens was elevated from chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee to chairman of the full committee. But Cortese continues to serve as the head staffer on the Defense subpanel, and some appropriations-watchers worry about his ability to handle such double duty in the long term. Cortese, though, said he is unconcerned about splitting his attention, and noted that he has assembled a Defense subcommittee staff that can "work without much interference" from him. Sources praise Cortese for having a good handle on his boss's views, and Cortese agreed that he indeed stays in close contact with the often-combative Stevens. When asked to describe his duties, Cortese joked, "I do what the chairman tells me." Before joining Stevens' staff, the Indianapolis native and Georgetown University graduate did a stint with the General Accounting Office.

Lisa Sutherland
Deputy Staff Director

Sutherland is a veteran of Stevens' staff, having joined him in 1981. She left in 1984 to work for the Bristol Bay Native Corp., and then for the law firm of Perkins, Coie, Birch, Harton and Bittner. She returned to Stevens' staff in 1987, serving as counsel, legislative director, and administrative assistant in his personal office before becoming the committee's deputy staff director in 1997. A native of Dayton, Ohio, she is a graduate of Drake University and earned her law degree from the University of Washington.

Christine Ciccone
Assistant Staff Director

With more than a decade of Senate experience, Ciccone has proved a valuable asset for Stevens, who from 1995-97 chaired three separate committees, each time with Ciccone as part of the transition. Stevens became the Rules Committee chairman in early 1995 and the Governmental Affairs Committee chairman that September. In 1997, Ciccone helped ease his transition as Appropriations chairman. She also serves as staff director of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee. Hannah Sistare, the staff director of the Governmental Affairs Committee, said that Ciccone deals with issues before they become major problems. "She does things right away," Sistare said. "I think people regard her as someone that gets things done." A New Hampshire native, Ciccone earned an undergraduate degree at the University of New Hampshire and a law degree from George Washington University. She began her legislative career in 1988, serving as an aide to then-Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H.

Rebecca Davies
Clerk, Agriculture Subcommittee

Davies is extremely inaccessible: No published biographies of her are known to exist and she refuses to reveal details about her personal background. According to several sources, Davies is in her 40s and grew up in Maryland. She was an aide to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M., before moving to the Appropriations Committee, where she worked on the full-committee staff before going to the Treasury-Postal Subcommittee and, in the early 1990s, to the Agriculture Subcommittee. When Stevens took over as chairman in 1997, he allowed Davies to stay, out of deference to Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss. A Capitol Hill source who has worked with Davies says she spends 60 percent to 70 percent of her time determining how to spend the agricultural research budget. The source added that she is very responsive to Senators seeking funding for research projects important to their states. Some lobbyists say Davies is difficult to deal with, while an Agriculture Department source called discussions with her "frank and honest." But National Cotton Council President John McGuire called Davies "one of the few people who can explain the budget process and how it affects the appropriations process." He said that agriculture has benefited from the depth of her knowledge.

James Morhard
Clerk, Commerce-Justice-State Subcommittee

Morhard, 42, displays a quiet and reserved style, but is demanding when sorting out spending priorities for the federal agencies that fall under his panel's jurisdiction. "He's tough. He asks tough questions," said one Senate colleague, who explained that on the personal level, Morhard's usually a "low-key guy." Before assuming his current job in 1997, Morhard worked for the Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee, where he was able to draw from eight years' experience in the office of the comptroller of the Navy. Before his appropriations work, Morhard was an aide to former Sens. Pete Wilson, R-Calif., and Robert Kasten, R-Wis. Morhard's tough tasks include the politically thorny issue of funding the Census Bureau. The Arlington, Va., native is a graduate of St. Francis College and holds a master's from George Washington University and a law degree from Georgetown University.

Alex Flint
Clerk, Energy-Water Subcommittee

Hill staffers who have worked with Flint, 29, say he is adept at talking authoritatively about the arcana of U.S. energy programs and policy. A native of Orlando, Fla., Flint moved to New Mexico and studied at the University of New Mexico before transferring to George Washington University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in 1991. Flint's career as a congressional aide began in Albuquerque, N.M., where as a staff assistant to Domenici, he began working on matters-such as national energy laboratories located in the state-that prepared him for his current job, which he assumed when Domenici became the subcommittee's chairman in 1995. Flint has become a trusted aide of Domenici's through his work on issues important to the Senator and the panel, including arms control and nuclear energy.

Bruce Evans
Clerk, Interior Subcommittee

A native of Olympia, Wash., the 32-year-old Evans said he has long been familiar with resources issues, which are under his subpanel's jurisdiction. After earning an undergraduate degree in history from Yale in 1987, he became a research assistant in the Commerce Department's congressional affairs office, and later served as a legislative assistant to Sens. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Slade Gorton, R-Wash., both of whom have long been active on resources issues. Evans joined the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee in 1995, when Gorton became its chairman, and became staff director in 1997. Evans said his prior staff work on resources issues got him interested in his current portfolio. "That would be career inertia," he said. "There would be no particular design." Evans said the perennial conflict over such programs as the National Endowment for the Arts, which is under the subcommittee's purview, is what has really tested him. He likened writing the annual Interior Appropriations bill to "trying to put together a monster every year."

Bettilou Taylor
Clerk, Labor-HHS Subcommittee

A 25-year appropriations veteran, Taylor is the aide upon whom Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., relies to navigate the troubled waters that always swirl around this panel's controversial spending bill. "The subject matter is everything from education testing to stem-cell research," Taylor said. "Once you know the process, the subject you can pretty much pick up." Taylor indeed knows the process. She served on several House Appropriations subcommittees between 1974 and 1989 before joining the Senate subcommittee a decade ago. She became staff director last year. Born in Phillipsburg, Pa., and trained as a medical technician at Hagerstown Business College, Taylor began working in the 1970s at the National Institutes of Health and later in the budget office of the Health and Human Services Department. Although Taylor would not disclose her age, she did reveal one personal detail that she said would probably surprise people: "I like motorcycles and jet skis."

Wally Burnett
Clerk, Transportation Subcommittee

After earning an economics degree from Stanford University and a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1983, Burnett, a native of Fairbanks, Alaska, went to work for a few years as the legislative director for Stevens. Then from 1989-92, he worked for the Transportation Department on a strategic plan for then-Secretary Samuel Skinner. Next he did a stint as an adviser in the Department of the Navy before spending several years as a managing attorney for transportation clients at the Washington law firm of Adams & Reese. All of that transportation-related experience paid off in 1997, when Stevens brought Burnett back to the Hill to serve as the subcommittee's staff director. Andrea Wilkinson, a legislative assistant who has worked for Burnett, said he is extremely focused in his work and understands both policy and politics. "He makes sure he knows who the players are and . . . why they feel the way they feel," she said. Burnett, 40, said he is motivated by the economic benefits that transportation infrastructure can provide. "You have such incredible resources at your disposal," he said. Of late, Burnett has been the driving force behind the subcommittee's emphasis on oversight of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Jon Kamarck
Clerk, VA-HUD Subcommittee

Kamarck, 46, is known as a determined negotiator who has left his mark on every major piece of housing legislation that has moved through Congress in the past decade. "He is the housing-staff guru on Capitol Hill, and he's tough," said one Senate aide. The New York City native earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin and holds law degrees from the University of Florida and Georgetown University Law Center. He was an adviser at the Housing and Urban Development Department before heading to Capitol Hill in 1991 to work on housing issues, first at the House Banking and Financial Services Committee and later at the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. In his current job, which he assumed in 1997, Kamarck is chiefly responsible for housing issues. But he also has become immersed in funding matters related to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, two agencies that are under the subcommittee's jurisdiction. Kamarck's colleague Evans describes him as the "classic, rumpled, night-owl" staffer who will work around the clock to complete a project. "He's always got a pile of papers and his accordion folder," Evans said.

James H. English
Minority Staff Director, Clerk

English is known not for fierce partisanship but for his loyalty to ranking member Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and to the Appropriations Committee at large. "He plays the inside game," said one Republican appropriations source. "You never know what's going on inside his head." A native of Homer, La., and a graduate of Southeastern University, English, 57, began his career as an agent with the Internal Revenue Service before joining the Appropriations Committee in 1971. Aside from serving as vice president of Amtrak from 1982-87 and as an assistant secretary of the Senate from 1987-89, he has worked at the committee since then. He served as majority staff director when the Democrats controlled the Senate and he continues to do the Democrats' work on the Legislative Branch appropriations bill.

Terrence Sauvain
Minority Deputy Staff Director

Sauvain, 59, is English's right-hand man. He also monitors many West Virginia appropriations priorities for Byrd, who is a master of bringing back federal money to his home state. Sauvain is a veteran of the appropriations wars, having joined the committee staff in 1973. Except for two years out to serve as secretary of the Senate for the minority, he has served on the panel's staff since then. Before going to work in Congress, Sauvain, a Cleveland native, also worked at the National Institutes of Health and the then-Health, Education, and Welfare Department. He served in the Coast Guard Reserve until 1995 and earned the Meritorious Service Medal and the Eagle Award. Sauvain is a graduate of Notre Dame University and earned a master's from George Washington University.