Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins is summoning six Trump administration Cabinet members to testify next week, signaling an aggressive effort to move spending bills through Congress before the fiscal year ends September 30.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins will appear before appropriations subcommittees on April 22. Collins outlined an ambitious timeline in an interview: markup sessions in June, followed by floor votes in July.
"There are a lot of difficult choices to be made," Collins told Axios, acknowledging the legislative hurdles ahead.
The Maine Republican, the only GOP senator representing a Democratic-leaning state, is keen to demonstrate legislative muscle to constituents. She's running for a sixth term in November against Democrat Graham Platner, who has made Collins' influence a campaign issue. At a recent town hall, Platner warned voters they would "lose her power, her seniority" if Collins loses her seat.
Collins is working on two fronts: pushing her committee agenda while also trying to convince Senate Democrats to return to the negotiating table on bipartisan spending bills. She argues that when Republicans turn to reconciliation instead, Democrats surrender leverage.
"Reconciliation is not my preference," Collins said. "I would much rather that we do appropriations bills. I particularly don't like multi-year reconciliation bills."
She blamed Democrats for the current impasse. "The fact is, it's the Democrats who put us into this position," she said, calling for Democratic committee members to "take a constructive approach and that they believe in the appropriations process."
Republicans are coalescing around a "skinny" reconciliation package that would provide three years of funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, while handling the rest of Homeland Security funding through traditional appropriations for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Last fall's negotiations collapsed over Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, triggering a 43-day government shutdown. Earlier this year, lawmakers appeared on track to finish the job until the fatal shootings in Minnesota eroded Democratic support and derailed progress on DHS funding.
Collins stressed that bipartisan cooperation did succeed in most cases. "It's important to remember that 11 of the 12 appropriations bills did go through on a bipartisan basis," she said, emphasizing that relying on endless reconciliation bills undermines the normal budget process.
Author James Rodriguez: "Collins is threading a needle between genuine legislative ambition and raw electoral politics, but the Cabinet hearings signal she's serious about moving money bills before summer recess, regardless of Democratic cooperation."
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