U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted earlier this month to advance President Donald Trump’s megabill to the floor before ultimately voting against it. On Tuesday night, she voted against advancing Trump’s request to cancel about $9 billion in approved spending.
Republicans who control Congress still had the votes in each case to approve or move the legislation forward, but Collins’ explanation of the advancement votes has drawn attention and offers a glimpse into how she’s navigating her role as prepares for the 2026 election.
In an interview with Maine Public after the Senate narrowly passed Trump’s megabill of tax breaks and spending cuts, Collins was asked about criticism from Maine Democrats and others for advancing the legislation to the floor for debate if she had concerns over the bill’s Medicaid cuts.
“First of all, let me say that the majority leader, whether it’s a Democrat or Republican, always has the right to determine which bills come to the floor, except under very few circumstances, and thus, I defer to the right of the majority leader to bring the bill to the floor,” Collins said before referring to the 51-49 advancement vote to add a “no” vote from her “wouldn’t have mattered anyway.”
The state’s senior senator added in the Maine Public interview and in a WMTW interview that she wanted to allow for additional amendments to the legislation, such as a $50 billion rural hospital fund that made it in the final version that still has Maine hospitals bracing for dire consequences.
When the Bangor Daily News asked Wednesday about what are the “very few circumstances” under which Collins does not defer to the majority leader of either party in determining which bills come to the floor, her office replied with a statement instead from campaign spokesperson Shawn Roderick, saying “Democrats still cannot get over the fact that Sen. Collins voted against the budget bill.”
It was a nod to the looming 2026 reelection battle facing Collins, the Senate Appropriations Committee chair who was the subject of a Politico story Wednesday reporting that her fellow Republicans are making her leadership role “a nightmare.” The latest Morning Consult approval ratings also came out Wednesday and had 38 percent of Mainers approving of Collins while 54 percent disapprove, a record bad mark in the tracking that dates back to 2017.
Collins and her team believe the scrutiny of her past votes is part of a Democratic attack.
“Her reasoning was clear [on the megabill],” Roderick said. “Their political stunts don’t change the record.”
On Tuesday night, Collins was one of three Republican senators to vote against advancing Trump’s rescissions package that would claw back about $9 billion for foreign aid, health and public broadcasting programs. Vice President JD Vance broke a tie to advance the measure.
Collins said she mostly took issue with a lack of specifics from the White House on the package. Her office argued Wednesday that the rescissions package is vastly different from the megabill when comparing her votes to either advance or not advance them.
Still, while Collins has emphasized she defers to the Senate majority leader, she has voted over the years against advancing high-profile bills brought by both Democrats and Republicans. For example, she voted with her caucus in 2022 against advancing former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and voted a year earlier against advancing Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act that served as an economic stimulus package amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
She has voted against advancing Republican budget proposals over the years, such as when then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, sought in 2011 to replace Medicare with a voucher system — though Democrats controlled the Senate that year. In 2017, Collins joined Democrats in the Republican-controlled Senate to vote against advancing a GOP effort to repeal former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
