PORTLAND (AP) – U.S. Sen. Susan Collins has been appointed by Senate leaders to a seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, her office announced Wednesday.

Collins, who was sworn in this month to a third term, becomes the first Maine senator to be represented on the panel since fellow Republican Margaret Chase Smith served on it in 1972.

The appointment also means that Maine will have senators on both of the key committees with jurisdiction over spending and taxation. Republican Olympia Snowe is a longtime member of the Senate Finance Committee. Appropriations is responsible for approving all federal discretionary funding. Its new chairman is Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii. The committee, Collins said, has the responsibility to make “wise investments of taxpayer dollars while eliminating or reducing funding for programs that have not lived up to their promise.”

“We have a need to stimulate the economy, which involves more spending,” she told The Associated Press. “But in the long term we have to curb federal spending so we’re not passing on trillions of dollars of unpaid bills to the next generation. So it’s going to require setting priorities and many difficult decisions.”

In addition to Appropriations, Collins serves on the Armed Services Committee, the Special Committee on Aging and the Homeland Security Committee, where she is ranking member.

Collins will not have to relinquish any of the other assignments. The Republican caucus approved a waiver allowing her to serve on Appropriations while retaining her seat on Armed Services, spokesman Kevin Kelley said. By rule, Republican senators can’t serve on more than one of four select committees – Appropriations, Finance, Armed Services and Foreign Relations – unless they get a waiver.

Collins sought one of three Republican seats that were left vacant by the defeat of Ted Stevens of Alaska and the decisions by Wayne Allard of Colorado and Larry Craig of Idaho not to seek re-election.

She said membership on Appropriations will enhance her input on funding in such areas as shipbuilding, health care, education and transportation infrastructure, while allowing her to look for ways to curb wasteful spending.

She’ll immediately be involved in helping craft the federal economic stimulus bill, which she said will go to both the Appropriations and Finance committees.

“That is the most important task that Congress will be concentrating on in the near term, and I’m delighted I’ll be able to play a key role,” she said.

Appropriations, organized in 1867, is the Senate’s oldest committee. Its first chairman was a Maine Republican, Lot Morrill.