The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Shawn Yardley of Bowerbank is a former child welfare, public health, and social service administrator, and immediate past chair of the Statewide Homeless Council.
When she ran for reelection in 2020, Susan Collins made a simple case to Mainers: reelect her, and she’d occupy what she called the most powerful position in the Senate: chair of the Appropriations Committee. “‘You know who’s going to be the next chairman of the Appropriations Committee should I choose to run?,’ she asked the crowd in Bethel. Then she pointed at herself and smiled,” The Sun Journal reported.
Five years later, she holds that position. Her party holds a trifecta in government, with Republicans controlling the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives. By her own standard, she’s now in the ideal position to deliver for Maine and defend it from harm.
And yet, harm has come.
Since Donald Trump returned to office, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has dealt a severe blow to Maine farmers, cutting federal grants they depended on to upgrade equipment, expand facilities, and keep family farms afloat. A program that allowed school districts to buy fresh, local produce has vanished. Cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency have led to canceled federal grants Maine seafood processors were counting on to modernize boats and gear, leaving them on the hook for massive bills they had no way to pay. Meanwhile, federal support for domestic violence shelters and resources for veterans at the VA have all been slashed or stalled.
What’s worse, Collins — who promised Mainers she’d control the purse strings — has watched as Elon Musk’s DOGE team defied Congress and slashed programs it had already funded. They ground cancer research to a halt mid-study, blocked USAID food shipments to famine zones, and slashed support for veterans’ health care and rural hospitals. It was an unprecedented power grab — a direct assault on the very role Collins claimed as her strength. If ever there were a moment for a Senate Appropriations chair to show leadership, this was it.
Instead, Collins has been largely sidelined. She issued no subpoenas, held no oversight hearings, mounted no serious challenge to many of these moves. She has worked to get funding restored to some programs in Maine. Yet, the woman who once boasted of her clout has seen that clout rendered mostly meaningless.
This month, Collins faces another test: the budget reconciliation bill.
Analysts say the bill will add $3.8 trillion to the debt and threaten access to health care for millions. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated it would kick nearly 11 million people off their health care, with 7.8 million people losing Medicaid benefits. It slashes SNAP by 30 percent, threatening food assistance for more than 1 million American children and putting 31,000 Mainers at risk of losing some or all of their SNAP benefits. All of this to pay for a massive tax giveaway to billionaires and the wealthiest Americans — not the majority of people Collins was elected to serve, but the donors who bankroll her campaigns.
Susan Collins must be judged by the standard she set. She told Mainers that her seniority would give her unmatched power to protect our state. Now she has the title, the majority, and the moment. If she can’t use them to stop this bill — and rein in a White House that’s trampling on Congress and the communities it’s meant to represent — then her seniority feels meaningless.
