Susan Collins

Susan Collins supports expanding workforce training, strengthening small businesses, providing tax relief for families and job creators, reducing bureaucratic red tape, and promoting fair trade. She has also supported reducing the tax burden on small businesses to encourage job creation and economic growth.

Susan Collins says the U.S. healthcare system needs substantial reform and supports expanding access—particularly in rural communities—while addressing mental-health and substance-use treatment, caregiver support, provider shortages, and prescription-drug costs. Her recent Senate work includes advancing bipartisan measures to cap insulin costs and strengthen the healthcare and nursing workforces.

Senator Collins says she supports protecting Maine’s environment, reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, and creating clean-energy jobs while preserving American manufacturing and keeping energy affordable. Her record also reflects a mixed approach: she voted against the 2025 tax-and-energy bill that would have ended or narrowed several clean-energy tax credits, while reporting has documented criticism of her climate action and her opposition to the nonbinding Green New Deal resolution.

Senator Collins says people who are in the country legally should not be targeted by ICE and should be able to work, attend school, and live normally; she supports arrest and deportation of people who entered illegally and engaged in criminal activity. She has called for ICE body cameras and de-escalation training, sought a pause to enhanced immigration-enforcement operations in Maine, and supported Senate funding for expanded immigration enforcement while pressing for accountability and oversight.

Susan Collins emphasizes U.S. national security through her work on the Senate Appropriations Committee and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, including defense funding supporting Maine-based shipyards and defense companies. She also voted to end hostilities in Iran, stating that further military action should have a clear mission, achievable goals, and a defined strategy for ending the conflict.

Senator Collins supports bipartisan gun-safety measures that she says preserve Second Amendment rights for law-abiding gun owners. She supported and helped negotiate the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, including funding for crisis-intervention programs such as Maine’s yellow-flag law and new offenses targeting straw purchasing and firearms trafficking; she has also backed red-flag legislation with due-process protections.

Susan Collins has supported federal LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections, including the Equality Act, and has advocated for marriage equality. More recently, she said transgender people deserve respect and dignity but voted for an amendment barring transgender athletes from girls' and women's sports, arguing that Title IX athletic participation should be based on sex rather than gender identity.

Susan Collins supports education at all levels, including early childhood education, K–12 public schools, and more affordable higher education. She says she will pursue robust federal funding and targeted legislation for effective programs that help teachers and students succeed; her education page also highlights a bipartisan bill allowing early-childhood educators to deduct out-of-pocket classroom-supply purchases and legislation to block transfers of Education Department offices.

Senator Collins supports restricting materially deceptive AI-generated audio, images, and video used in certain federal election-related communications, with exceptions for parody, satire, and news broadcasts. She has also supported public investment in high-performance computing infrastructure to strengthen Maine’s digital-economy research, innovation, and AI-related industries.

Senator Collins emphasizes delivering federal resources to Maine communities through Congressionally Directed Spending and targeted infrastructure, public safety, health, workforce, housing, and education projects. In February 2026, her Senate office reported securing $428.643 million for 158 projects across all 16 Maine counties, including roads and bridges, water and wastewater infrastructure, hospitals, housing-related infrastructure, and fire, police, and EMS facilities; her campaign likewise highlights delivering for Maine, jobs and workforce development, and support for Maine communities.

Susan Collins supports strengthening election security through bipartisan measures. She co-authored the SECURE IT Act provision enacted in the FY2026 NDAA, directing the Election Assistance Commission to require penetration testing for election systems seeking certification, and she announced support for the SAVE America Act, which would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration and specified voter ID for voting.

Senator Susan Collins says she supports codifying the abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade and affirmed by Planned Parenthood v. Casey. She co-sponsored the Reproductive Choice Act, which would prohibit undue burdens on abortion before fetal viability while allowing health-and-safety regulations and limited post-viability restrictions. Recent reporting also documents criticism of her vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh and her record on abortion-related Senate hearings and judicial confirmations.