While the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee is rarely referred to as "Pope," the chairmen of the 13 subcommittees of that panel are indeed commonly called "Cardinals."

The term cardinal comes from the Latin, cardo, meaning "pivotal hinge," or of vital importance. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope appoints up to 120 priests to serve for life as his main counselors and assistants. This elite group of top aides is known as the "Sacred College of Cardinals."

As part of the governing authority of the Roman Catholic Church, the Cardinals have the paramount responsibility of electing the Pope, and as the chief officials of the papal bureaucracy, have administrative responsibilities over all aspects of the business of the Church. Their elevated position is reflected in their distinctive red garb and in their colloquial title as "princes" of the church.

In Congress, the power of deciding who gets how much is initiated by the House Appropriations Committee -- its Members have become the princes who hold the purse-strings. Their legislative products are the 13 appropriations bills which fund the entire federal government, divided among 13 subcommittees, each with different governmental agency and program jurisdictions. The chairmen of those 13 subcommittees have become known collectively as the "College of Cardinals."

As former Rep. Silvio Conte [R-MA] used to say, "If you're in the butcher shop when the hog gets slaughtered, you get to take home the best bacon." The appropriators are not only in the butcher shop at the right time to aid their own districts and states, they also decide what the many lined up outside the doors will get. The subcommittee Cardinals are the "pivotal hinge" for the distribution of money at the federal governmental level.

Service on the Appropriations Committee is the most prized committee assignment of all, and membership is a reward for loyal service to one's party, and traditionally one of the benefits of seniority. The leadership of both parties holds out an Appropriations Committee slot as the carrot before Members who may be asked at key moments to sacrifice their own political goals for the needs of their party as a whole.

Although the decisions of the Appropriations Committee must be affirmed by vote of the full House, re-examined by the Senate, and win the signature of the President to become law, the House appropriators initiate the process, frame the debate, and have great advantages in protecting their legislation and persuading their colleagues to support it.

The Appropriations "College of Cardinals" influences a great deal of the business of the Congress, as the Sacred College of Cardinals does the business of the Roman Catholic Church. Both Colleges are held in awe, respect – and perhaps a certain degree of fear, by those who are dependent upon their goodwill and look to them for favor.