Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran is pressing ahead with a challenge to Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski for the top Republican position on the Senate Appropriations Committee, setting up a contest for one of the chamber’s most influential spending posts.

“I’m still pursuing that opportunity,” Moran said in an interview Thursday afternoon.

Murkowski is next in line under the Senate Republican Conference’s seniority policy. Her office confirmed this week that she intends to seek the position after the current chair, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, lost her reelection bid in last week’s midterms.

The two Republicans have discussed their competing ambitions, but Moran said neither has stepped aside.

“She and I have been talking on several occasions since this began,” he said. “But I’m not sure how you talk this to a conclusion.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that he had not intervened in the dispute. He said he had told Murkowski that she and Moran “need to talk it out” and that “we’ll see where those conversations lead.”

Moran said Republican members of the Appropriations Committee will have an initial say, followed by a vote of the full Senate Republican Conference. Internal decisions could come this year, although the Senate is scheduled to ratify committee selections on the floor in early January.

The contest also carries implications for leadership of the defense appropriations subcommittee, which oversees roughly $1 trillion in annual funding for military programs. Moran said Murkowski intends to seek the top Republican position on both the full committee and the defense panel.

Moran did not say whether he would abandon his bid for the full committee’s top Republican spot if offered a prominent subcommittee role, such as the defense post.

Asked about the challenge Thursday, Murkowski declined to discuss the contest in detail. She said she would “rather talk with members than talk through the press,” adding, “I think that’s how we respect one another.”