Susan Collins and three other women in Congress to lead appropriations committees in historic first

PORTLAND, Maine (WMTW) - For the first time in American history, women control the purse strings in Congress.

Four of them will lead the appropriations committees this session, and the group includes Maine’s Susan Collins.

“It is about time. This is a very exciting, historical occasion,” Collins said in an interview with WMTW Maine’s Total Coverage.

The congressional appropriations committees draft the bills for all the trillions of dollars of federal spending every year.

In the Senate, Collins, a member of the Republican minority, will be vice-chair alongside Washington State Democrat Patty Murray as chair.

Another New Englander, Connecticut Democrat Rosa Delauro will be vice-chair on the House side, with Kay Granger of Texas, a member of the Republican majority, as chair.

Collins said, “You’ll see more collaboration and communication with the four of us working closely together, even though, obviously, we’re not going to agree on every issue, and we pretty much span the ideological spectrum.”

Collins says they hope to restore normalcy to the appropriations process by passing a dozen, mission-focused spending bills for cabinet departments and government agencies --no more giant “omnibus” spending bill at year’s end.

“The problem with legislating that way is that no one is really certain what is completely in a bill that is thousands of pages long,” Collins said, “When we take the approach of bundling them all together, it inevitably costs taxpayers more money, it makes it difficult for agencies to plan, it delays the start of new programs that are needed, and it keeps funding programs that are no longer needed or should be trimmed back.”

In her fifth term in the Senate, Collins has already proven adept at bringing home the bacon for Maine people.

“They’re my first priority. They’re always going to be my first priority,” she said.

For example, she secured more than $300 million in Congressionally Directed Spending, formerly known as earmarks, for 180 in-state projects in the last session of Congress.

Collins said, “This doesn’t change overall spending. What it does is it changes who is making the decision.”

Her priorities also include steering funds for biomedical research, especially for Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes, rural development, such as fishing, farming, and forestry industries, and national defense, which could benefit Bath Iron Works and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Collins said, “Our navy is too small for the number of global threats that we face.”

The last Mainer at the helm of the Senate Appropriations Committee was Republican Frederick Hale, chair from 1932-33 and vice-chair from 1933-1941.

“It’s been about 80 years since a Mainer has held the chairman or vice-chair positions on the Senate Appropriations Committee, so I would say it’s about time.”