Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) officially confirmed Thursday evening that he would chair the Senate Appropriations Committee this year, after serving as the chairman in 2005 and 2006 and as the ranking member of the defense subcommittee since 2008.Cochran, with former chairman Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) as his ranking member, said in a statement that his goal is to “move forward in a responsible and timely manner to fulfill Congress’ constitutional obligation to fund federal government functions.”Cochran narrowly won the Republican…