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susan collins
Sen. Collins Must Do More to Truly Stand Up for Energy Assistance
In her questioning she did not challenge the nonsensical reasoning of the Trump administration. Instead, Sen. Collins, who certainly should know better, played along acting as if Trump was normal.
May 23, 2025
Last year, roughly 6 million American families used the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, to help pay their heating or cooling bills. LIHEAP is a program that helps people from Louisiana to Maine and has an amazingly bipartisan support. This support extends to energy providers.
In April of this year, the staff at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who run LIHEAP were fired by Secretary of HHS Robert F. Kennedy Jr. One of those fired employees was brought back last week to distribute the remaining LIHEAP funds for the current fiscal year.
Why would Collins thank Kennedy, or anyone else, for simply following the law?
This week Secretary Kennedy testified on HHS spending for the next fiscal year before the Senate Appropriations Committee chaired by Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine. In fiscal year 2025, Maine received $41.6 million in LIHEAP funding.
At the hearing, Collins praised the Trump for administration for releasing the already appropriated funds and asked Kennedy, “Will you work with this committee in trying to restore LIHEAP so that we can avoid, literally, seniors and low-income families not being able to keep warm in the winter?” Kennedy responded:
Yeah, absolutely, and I’m from New England myself. My brother, for 40 years, has run Citizens Energy, which provides low-cost home heating oil to families in New England. And so many people have come to me over the years and said to me, thank you, your brother saved my life because I didn’t have to choose between food and heat. I was on the Navajo reservation three weeks ago, and Navajo President Buu Nygren said to me, at this point, if we cut LIHEAP, Navajo will die from it. So, I understand the critical historical importance of this program. President [Donald] Trump’s rationale and the [Office of Management and Budget]’s rationale is that President Trump’s energy policies are going to lower the cost of energy so that everybody will get lower cost heating oil, and in that case, this program would simply be another subsidy to the fossil fuel industry.
Kennedy went on to add that if there was not a drop in energy prices, he would spend the monies that Congress appropriated. Concluding his remarks, Kennedy said that “Do that, and I will work with you to make sure that those families do not suffer in that way.”
Collins’ advocacy for LIHEAP is positive, and she should be commended for raising the issue with Kennedy. However, her remarks fell drastically short of what is needed at this moment. Collins was pleased that the Trump administration released already appropriated funds and that Kennedy said he would spend any monies Congress appropriated. This is only doing what the law requires nothing more. Why would Collins thank Kennedy, or anyone else, for simply following the law?
In her remarks, posted on her Senate webpage, Collins did not challenge Kennedy and Trump’s assertion that the energy policies of the Trump administration are going to reduce energy prices to the level that LIHEAP will no longer be needed. Even if there is a major drop in energy prices (this is a big if), would that drop make such a difference that LIHEAP would not be needed in the next fiscal year? The answer is obviously no.
It was good that Collins spoke up for LIHEAP. However, in her questioning she did not challenge the nonsensical reasoning of the Trump administration. Instead, Sen. Collins, who certainly should know better, played along acting as if Trump was normal. As she had done many times throughout her career in the Senate, Collins asked for assurances and hoped for the best. When dealing with the Trump administration, this approach is simply not good enough.
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'Deeply Shameful': Watchdog, Democratic Senators Slam Republicans for Confirming Hegseth as Defense Secretary
Pete Hegseth was confirmed as secretary of defense by the Senate on Friday, with all but three Republican senators—Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky—voting him through.
Jan 25, 2025
Pete Hegseth—U.S. President Donald Trump's controversial pick to lead the Pentagon—was narrowly confirmed as secretary of defense late Friday, despite a confirmation process that was rocked by allegations of sexual assault, sexist behavior, and more that critics warned made him unqualified and unfit to lead the country's largest federal agency.
"Hegseth is such a monster—just depressing for us all," wrote David Duhalde, the chair of the Democratic Socialists of America Fund on X following the Senate's confirmation of Hegseth, an army veteran and former Fox News co-host.
Hegseth was sworn in to the position on Saturday morning.
Vice President JD Vance cast a tie breaking vote to get Hegseth over the line after Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) joined all of the body's Democratic and Independent senators in opposing his nomination. This was only the second time that a vice president has broken a tie for a cabinet nominee, according to CNN. The other time was when Betsy DeVos faced her 2017 Senate confirmation for Secretary of Education.
McConnell—who according to NBC News was among a group of GOP members who expressed reservations about Hegseth, but voted for an earlier procedural motion to allow Hegseth's nomination to advance to a final vote—issued a lengthy statement following his confirmation.
"Effective management of nearly 3 million military and civilian personnel, an annual budget of nearly $1 trillion, and alliances and partnerships around the world is a daily test with staggering consequences for the security of the American people and our global interests," McConnell wrote. "Mr. Hegseth has failed, as yet, to demonstrate that he will pass this test. But as he assumes office, the consequences of failure are as high as they have ever been."
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who lost both her legs while deployed to Iraq in 2004, issued a statement following the vote, writing, "it is deeply shameful that tonight—despite shouting from the rooftops that they wanted to bring meritocracy back to our military—nearly every Republican chose to confirm someone who so obviously lacks the merits to serve as our Secretary of Defense," according to Fox 32 Chicago.
"Pete Hegseth's confirmation will make our nation less safe," wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in a statement Friday. "His confirmation is a slap in the face to the quarter of a million active duty women in our military... Too few Republican leaders stood up for them."
"Republican Senators approved an unqualified nominee with a long history of alleged substance abuse, sexual harassment, and assault," she added.
Hegseth was able to secure the nomination despite multiple, explosive allegations that came to light during his nomination process. In November 2024, The Washington Post reported that Hegseth paid a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2017 as part of a nondisclosure agreement, though according to Hegseth their encounter was consensual. In December, The New Yorkerreported that a whistle-blower report and other documents suggest that Hegseth was forced out of leadership positions due to sexist behavior, financial mismanagement, and being drunk on the job. Hegseth's former sister-in-law also provided the Senate Armed Services Committee with an affidavit earlier this week accusing him of being abusive toward one of his ex-wives. Hegseth has denied the allegations in the affidavit.
Hegseth has also come under scrutiny for making comments in the past that women should not serve in combat roles.
Tony Carrk, the executive director of the watchdog group Accountable.US, slammed the GOP senators who voted Hegseth through, writing, "this confirmation shows that most Republican Senators are willing to rubber-stamp the lowest common denominator from the Trump administration even when it puts everyday Americans in harm's way. That’s terrifying."
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'Obvious Conflict of Interest': Report Reveals 50+ US Lawmakers Hold Military Stocks
"It's abjectly terrifying that the personal benefit of any member of Congress is factored into decisions about how to wield and fund the largest military in the world," said one critic.
Sep 12, 2024
At least 50 U.S. lawmakers or members of their households are financially invested in companies that make military weapons and equipment—even as these firms "receive hundreds of billions of dollars annually from congressionally-crafted Pentagon appropriations legislation," a report published Thursday revealed.
Sludge's David Moore analyzed 2023 financial disclosures and stock trades disclosed in other reports and found that "the total value of the federal lawmakers' defense contractors stock holdings could be as much as $10.9 million."
According to the report:
The spouse of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the ranking member of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee, holds between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of shares in each of Boeing and RTX, as well as holdings in two other defense manufacturers. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), another Defense Appropriations subcommittee member, holds up to $50,000 in the stock of Boeing, which received nearly $33 billion in defense contracts last year. On the Democratic side of the aisle, Sen. John Hickenlooper (Colo.) holds up to a quarter of a million dollars' worth of stock in RTX...
The most widely held defense contractor stock among senators and representatives is Honeywell, an American company that makes sensors and guiding devices that are being used by the Israeli military in its airstrikes in Gaza. The second most commonly held defense stock by Congress is RTX, formerly known as Raytheon, the company that makes missiles for Israel's Iron Dome, among other weapons systems.
All 13 senators whose households disclosed military stock holdings voted for the most recent National Defense Authorization Act, which, as Common Dreams reported, allocated a record $886.3 billion for the U.S. military while many lawmakers' constituents struggled to meet their basic needs.
"It is an obvious conflict of interest when a member of Congress owns significant stock investments in a company and then votes to award the same company lucrative federal contracts," Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, told Sludge.
"Whether or not the official action is taken for actual self-enrichment purposes is beside the point. There is at least an appearance of self-enrichment and that appearance is just as damaging to the integrity of Congress," Holman added. "This type of conflict of interest is already banned for executive branch officials and so should be for Congress as well. The ETHICS Act would justly avoid that conflict of interest by prohibiting members of Congress and their spouses from owning stock investments altogether."
Holman was referring to the Ending Trading and Holdings In Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act, introduced earlier this year by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).
In the House of Representatives—where the 2024 NDAA passed 310-118, with the approval of over two dozen members who own shares in military companies—House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul's (R-Texas) household owns up to $2.6 million in General Electric, Oshkosh Corporation, and Woodward shares. Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), who sits on the Defense Appropriations subcommittee, owns as much as $100,000 worth of Boeing and General Electric stock.
Other House lawmakers with potential conflicts of interest include Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who owns Leidos shares worth as much as $248,000; Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who owns up to $100,000 worth of RTX stock; and Rep. Patrick Fallon (R-Texas), a member of the Armed Services Committee who holds Boeing stock worth between $100,000 and $250,000.
"Every American should take a long, hard look at these holdings to conceptualize the scope of Congress' entanglement with defense contractors," Public Citizen People Over Pentagon advocate Savannah Wooten told Sludge. "It's abjectly terrifying that the personal benefit of any member of Congress is factored into decisions about how to wield and fund the largest military in the world."
"Requiring elected officials to divest from the military-industrial complex before stepping into public service would create a safer and more secure world from the outset," she added.
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