The U.S. Senate has advanced a $153 billion military construction and veterans affairs spending bill Tuesday that includes funding for an array of initiatives in Maine.
The proposal includes nearly $460 million for Maine, including the state's only veterans hospital Togus and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which helps maintain the Navy's submarine fleet.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins lauded those investments during a floor speech on Thursday, while also touting the bipartisan process leading to a 90-8 vote to advance the bill.
The proposal is among the least contentious spending bills the Senate will consider this year. But it was closely watched because it followed last week's vote by the Republican majority to claw back $9 billion in foreign aid and money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, that had previously passed on bipartisan votes. CPB provides funding to National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Services and member stations, including Maine Public.
Democrats have described the vote on the White House-backed recission package as a betrayal that discourages their cooperation on future spending bills. The vote also threatens the influence of the Senate Appropriations Committee that Collins now chairs as she seeks a sixth term next year.
She used her floor speech to emphasize the importance of the committee process and maintaining Congress constitutional power of the purse.
"The appropriations process is the key way that Congress carries out this significant constitutional responsibility. We must not abdicate our constitutional responsibility for the purse," she said.
Collins emphasized her ascension on the appropriations committee during her 2020 reelection bid. However, the Republican controlled Congress has relented to the Trump administration's push for more control over federal spending. That's led Democrats in Maine to criticize Collins for not using her position on the appropriations committee to do more to curb the administration's bid to wrest spending authority away from Congress.
