Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said she's concerned about the Trump administration's threat to pursue mass layoffs of federal workers during the government shutdown, even as she blames Democrats for the funding stalemate.
Collins took only a few questions from the press after a ribbon cutting at a Red Cross center in Portland today, but said she's in touch with the Office of Management and Budget.
"I've made that very clear to OMB that I do not think that those layoffs are fair and that we'll end up with the agencies not having sufficient personnel to do the mission of the agency," she said.
Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, voted to confirm Trump's OMB director Russell Vought in February.
Collins said Democrats are to blame for the shutdown, as they demand an extension of health insurance premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
She called on Democrats to instead support a "clean" funding extension and address health care policy later.
"The kind of short term continuing resolution that we're talking about here goes through only to Nov. 21, we have done countless times," she said.
Funding to keep the government open lapsed on Oct. 1. The Senate reconvenes this afternoon.
