WASHINGTON — Seven months into Senator Barbara A. Mikulski’s new assignment as chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, there is already a saying among members: “We loved Byrd, we respected Inouye, we fear Barbara.”

It is not hard to see why. Ms. Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, intimidates people in a way that the two most recent committee chairmen, the late Senators Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, did not. During a March floor debate, Ms. Mikulski ordered Senator John McCain of Arizona to go back to his office and read a bill so he could properly vote on it — and Mr. McCain, chastened but cheerful, agreed. “I will now try to carry out my mission as assigned by the distinguished chairwoman,” he said.

Ms. Mikulski, who legislates with two parts accommodation and one part coercion, now finds herself at the center of a spending brawl on Capitol Hill. At 77, she is the longest serving woman in Congress, the first female leader of its most august committee and the fulcrum in a fiscal fight that will dominate Washington this fall.

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She has no patience for attempts to gut programs for the poor, and is eager to pass her bills in part to distinguish between her priorities and those of House Republicans. “Our bills will show the difference,” she said.

Madison — Armed security guards who were abruptly pulled from a proposed mine site in northern Wisconsin last month are now licensed. Bulletproof Securities was briefly protecting the site, but pulled back when it became clear last month that the Arizona firm had not received a license to operate in Wisconsin.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Safety and Professional Services announced Monday that the firm is now licensed. Guards with the firm will soon join those from other companies who are already at the site, according to the mining company.

Also, the state has dismissed complaints against the security firm for operating without a license, said a statement from the department spokeswoman, Brittany Lewin.

Bulletproof began operating on July 4 at the site of the potential iron ore pit mine proposed by Gogebic Taconite. But the paramilitary-style guards were pulled back a week later after it was revealed the firm did not have a license to provide private security.