Susan Collins’ new role puts Maine top among states in earmarks so far
A version of this article was originally published in The Daily Brief, our Maine politics newsletter. Sign up here for daily news and insight from politics editor Michael Shepherd.
Since earmarks returned to Congress in 2021, Maine has made out well relative to other states. But that success has been supercharged so far this year after Sen. Susan Collins took the top Republican spot on the Appropriations Committee.
After the Senate panel approved the last of its regular spending bills last month, Maine was the top recipient of earmarks among states in the upper chamber so far at just over $600 million, according to a CQ-Roll Call count. The small state was sixth last year and now sits second in per-capita earmarks on the Senate side behind Alaska.
The context: This money is not final yet, since the Republican-led House of Representatives is not close to finalizing its companion bills. Some predict gridlock or a potential government shutdown due to opposition to current spending levels from conservatives in the lower chamber, where representation — and therefore earmarks — are tied to states’ population size.
CQ-Roll Call still expects Maine to land in the top five once the House measures are finalized. This has come at the expense of states whose senators led the committee until last year, including Alabama and Vermont, where Republican and Democratic leaders retired last year.
It amounts to a generational shift in appropriating that has favored Maine. Individually, CQ-Roll Call data puts Collins third in the chamber in earmarks so far, up from 11th last year. Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is in the top 20 for the first time, while the senators have also partnered on more earmarks to date.
Requests are unlimited in the Senate, while House members have been capped at 10 since earmarks returned. That puts much of the power in the upper chamber to direct money toward special projects from university research to roads and new fire stations.
Political debate: Collins has stuck out among congressional Republicans as a defender of earmarks, which have been criticized harshly by some conservatives. In 2021, she was among the first six Republicans to tell Politico she would use them.
Her ascension on the appropriations panel has also been one of her top political promises to Mainers. During a heated 2020 campaign against Democrat Sara Gideon, she argued that her seniority and impending takeover of the committee would lead to far better results for Maine.
“If Senator Collins becomes appropriations chair, it means that Mitch McConnell is still majority leader,” Gideon retorted during a debate in a campaign that often focused on the judiciary at a time when control of the Senate was hanging in the balance.
What’s next: Collins won the race, and earmarks are a big part of what she can directly affect for Maine. There is still a long way to go in the appropriations process with lots of uncertainty on the House side, but the early returns on earmarks are large for now.