'We Are The Table': Meet The History-Making Women Controlling The Most Powerful Levers Of Government

(CNN) — When Susan Collins first arrived in the Senate in 1997, a male colleague approached her about committee assignments and assumed that the Maine Republican would want to serve on education and child care panels.

“I said, ‘Yes, those are really important,’” Collins recalled. Then she told her colleague: “And I want to be on the Armed Services Committee.”

It was seen as a bold ask at a time when there were only a handful of women serving in Congress, and they didn’t even have their own bathroom yet, let alone coveted committee seats or powerful gavels. But more than 25 years later, Collins – along with Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, Republican Rep. Kay Granger of Texas and Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut – will hold the top spots on the Senate and House Appropriations committees, an influential crew on Capitol Hill commonly known as the “Four Corners.”

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