Susan Collins has put too many lives at risk | Opinion

MECEP Analysis: Collins’ Federal Funding Offset by ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Vote, Group Says Net Loss for Maine

AUGUSTA — A new analysis by the Maine Center for Economic Policy argues that Sen. Susan Collins’ record of securing federal earmarks and grants for the state has been financially negated by her procedural vote last summer to advance the federal spending package known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The report, released this week by the progressive-leaning research organization, calculates that Collins directed approximately $3.45 billion in federal funding to Maine projects over the last decade. However, MECEP estimates that the spending bill — which passed the Senate along party lines after Collins voted to move it to the floor — will drain $4.1 billion from the state through cuts to Medicaid, nutrition assistance, and other federal programs. The group puts the net fiscal impact at a $675 million loss for Maine.

“Senator Collins has long pointed to her ability to deliver resources for Maine as a hallmark of her tenure,” said James Myall, lead author of the MECEP report. “But the mechanics of the legislative process mean that a single procedural vote on a massive reconciliation bill can wipe out a decade of targeted wins. That is the argument we are putting before voters.”

Collins’ office disputed the framing. In a written statement, spokesperson Annie Clark said the senator’s vote on the motion to proceed was a standard procedural step to allow debate and amendment, not an endorsement of the final product. Clark noted that Collins ultimately voted against the bill’s final passage.

“Senator Collins has brought historic levels of funding to Maine for shipbuilding, infrastructure, healthcare, and workforce development,” Clark said. “She voted against the final reconciliation package because it did not meet her standards for fiscal responsibility or protection of essential services. Any analysis that equates a motion-to-proceed vote with support for the final bill ignores the legislative reality.”

The MECEP report arrives as the 2026 Senate race begins to take shape. Former Senate President Troy Jackson, a Democrat from Allagash, is widely expected to challenge Collins for the seat she has held since 1997. Jackson has not formally announced, but his allies have begun framing the contest around the senator’s alignment with the Trump administration.

The financial argument is one front in a broader critique leveled by Collins’ opponents, who have increasingly tied her record to life-and-death consequences across several policy domains.

On reproductive rights, critics point to Collins’ 2018 vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh. In 2022, Kavanaugh joined the majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade. Since then, a Population Reference Bureau analysis cited by advocates identified 59 women who died in states with abortion bans from conditions including ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage-related sepsis — cases where physicians reported that legal uncertainty delayed or prevented standard care. Most recently, Collins voted to confirm Matthew Byrne to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Byrne has a documented record of opposition to abortion rights.

On immigration, Human Rights Watch reported in June that deaths in ICE and CBP custody have more than doubled since President Trump took office in 2025. Collins supported a $70 billion allocation for immigration enforcement in the same spending package. Advocates highlight the case of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Maine resident who died during an immigration enforcement action in the state this year.

Regarding the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Center for American Progress projects that SNAP reductions included in the law could lead to 70,000 avoidable deaths nationally by 2040. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute estimate Medicaid cuts could result in 51,000 additional deaths per year.

On foreign policy, opponents cite a June Time magazine investigation estimating over 8,000 deaths in the U.S.-Iran conflict, including 22 American service members and at least 2,100 civilians. A UN fact-finding mission concluded the U.S. likely committed war crimes in a strike on a school in Minab, Iran, that killed 120 children. Critics argue Collins has ceded congressional war-making authority by declining to support resolutions limiting executive military action.

Collins’ voting record with the Trump administration stands at approximately 95 percent, according to Congressional Quarterly alignment scores.

Adding to the political headwinds, the Portland Press Herald reported in September that the FBI’s anti-corruption squad had been pursuing an investigation into Collins until the Trump Justice Department intervened to halt it. The nature of the investigation has not been publicly disclosed. Collins has denied any wrongdoing and called the reporting politically motivated.

“In any other profession, a record like this would result in immediate termination,” said Hillary Shende, a Brunswick resident and activist who has organized against Collins. “The cumulative weight of these votes — on the economy, on healthcare, on immigration, on war — represents a level of harm that is difficult to overstate. Mainers have the power to change course next November.”

The Collins campaign views the race differently. Internal polling shared with donors this summer shows the senator leading potential Democratic challengers by double digits. Her team argues that Maine’s ticket-splitting electorate values her seniority, committee chairmanships, and independence on select high-profile votes — such as her opposition to the Affordable Care Act repeal in 2017 and her vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial.

“Maine voters know Susan Collins,” Clark said. “They know she works across the aisle, delivers for the state, and votes her conscience. No outside analysis or partisan attack will change that.”

The general election is November 3, 2026.