I have long referred to Susan Collins (R-ME) as “Senator Concerned.”
Well…
“I am concerned if the Trump administration is clawing back money that has been specifically appropriated for a particular purpose,” she said.
This is from a Politico report: Senate’s top appropriator says Elon Musk has gone too far.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, is raising alarms about the influence that billionaire Elon Musk is wielding inside the Trump administration and across federal agencies.
“There’s no doubt that the president appears to have empowered Elon Musk far beyond what I think is appropriate,” she told reporters Wednesday. “I think a lot of it is going to end up in court.”
After the only known one-on-one meeting between Collins and Musk on Capitol Hill late last year, she had said she was “very impressed with his energy and dedication.”
Since that time, Musk has helped orchestrate a de facto shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development and gained access to the Treasury Department system that controls trillions of dollars in federal payments.
Collins also repeated her unease Wednesday that the White House is undermining Congressional spending power.
So, I am happy to see any member of the Senate, especially of the majority party, to be paying attention to all of this. But I think we should be well beyond just being “concerned.” And it isn’t encouraging that she only mentioned the courts and not Congress (you know, where she works and theoretically one of three branches of government).
Unlike many Senate Republicans, Collins has been vocal about her discomfort with the White House usurping Congress’ constitutional power of the purse.
I think that “vocal” is perhaps overselling her response.
And her concern only goes so far.
Collins had previously criticized the Office of Management and Budget’s move to freeze the disbursement of federal loans and grants as “far too sweeping” and warned it would have “an adverse effect on the delivery of services and programs.”
She still plans to vote to confirm Russ Vought, Trump’s pick for White House budget chief, who is expected to play a key role in the administration’s larger efforts to wrest spending power away from congress. Vought is expected to be confirmed on Thursday.
BTW, I can’t think of a time wherein Senator Collin’s “concern” mattered one whit.
