Senate Report Card: Susan Collins R-ME

Senator Susan Collins is the junior Republican United States Senator from the state of Maine. She assumed office in 1997. Senator Collins is generally considered a moderate and has been known to cross party lines. She is noted as being the longest serving Senator to never miss a roll call vote.

Senator Collins serves on the Aging and Armed Services Committees. She is also the ranking member on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee created after the September 11th attacks.

She gained flak from fellow Republicans when she sponsored a motion to allow the Senate to vote separately on the President Clinton impeachment. She then voted to acquit the President, much to her colleagues disappointment.

Collins created the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act, including many provisions of the bipartisan Heroes at Home Act that Senator Collins coauthored. It is a comprehensive piece of legislation that addresses many of the issues and deficiencies that were recently uncovered at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. This bill also corrects many of the problems that U.S. service members encounter when transitioning from the Department of Defense medical system to care under the Veterans' Administration

Collins was a member of the Senate "Gang of 14" that negotiated against a filibuster with members of both parties regarding judicial nominations made by President Bush. She voted against the Partial Birth Abortion Ban and is a member of Republicans for Choice. She voted against the ban on late-term abortions, the restrictions on travel to Cuba, harsher punishments for drug users and opposed amending the U.S. Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriages. She voted against CAFTA. She provided legislation that disapproved of a new rule put in place by the Bush Administration's Environmental Protection Agency that delisted coal and some other energy sources from the Clean Air Act. She voted to use tax cuts to build rural hospitals. She coauthored legislation to implement all of the 9/11 commissions recommendations.

Senator Susan Collins voted with the majority in favor of the Iraq War Resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to go to war against Iraq. She has since broken ranks with Republicans in criticizing the war, and the ever increasing chaos in the region. She voted in favor of placing restrictions on troop deployments, thereby allowing longer lengths of time between solider's tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. She also voted for a troop reduction and timeline. Collins voted against a filibuster that blocked a vote on a proposal authored by Senators Carl Levin and Jack Reed calling for an abrupt withdrawal of troops from Iraq. She indicated that she would have voted against the Levin-Reed amendment in its current form because of her opposition to some of its provisions.

Senator Susan Collins is up for reelection in 2008.