Senator Susan Collins currently serves as Chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. She also serves on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee leads the panel responsible for writing the annual federal spending bills. The Chair sets the committee’s agenda, oversees its subcommittees, and serves as the lead negotiator on government funding legislation.

Senator Collins was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996 and has served continuously since January 1997. She was re-elected in 2002, 2008, 2014, and 2020 and is currently seeking her sixth term. She is the seventh-most senior member of the Senate and the most senior Republican woman.

Senator Collins has directed major federal investments to Maine, including federal funding for communities in all 16 counties through her position as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. This includes more than $425 million in Fiscal Year 2026 in congressionally-directed spending for 156 targeted investments including rural hospitals, fire stations, public safety, bridge and road repairs, biomedical research, and workforce training. She is the first Maine senator in nearly 100 years to hold the Appropriations Committee chairmanship. More details about every federally funded project can be found here collins.senate.gov/services/funding-maines-future.

Senator Collins has authored or co-authored a wide range of bipartisan legislation. Examples include the Social Security Fairness Act (signed into law 2025), the Paycheck Protection Program (protected more than 250,000 Maine jobs during the pandemic), the Lifespan Respite Care Reauthorization Act (signed 2026), and she has secured billions of dollars for Alzheimer’s and diabetes research funding. She has been repeatedly ranked the most bipartisan senator by the Lugar Center and Georgetown University. For full bill details, see Congress.gov.

Official roll-call vote records are available at Senate.gov and Congress.gov. Senator Collins has cast more than 10,000 consecutive roll call votes without missing one.