How Trump is sabotaging Susan Collins’ re-election pitch

Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee's GOP side and one of the incumbents facing the toughest race this cycle, bases much of her campaign on her ability to steer federal money home. A new move by the Trump administration threatens that message. Last Friday, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told Congress the White House would cancel almost $1 billion in approved spending, mostly in Health and Human Services programs for refugees and unaccompanied minors, plus programs at the Education, Justice, and Housing and Urban Development departments. Because the notice came so close to the fiscal year's end, Vought argues the money simply expires. The Government Accountability Office again called such withholding illegal in a letter from general counsel Edda Emmanuelli Perez. Collins condemned the maneuver as a usurpation of Congress's appropriations powers and pledged to work with colleagues against it. Her pitch to voters stresses local projects she funds, so the White House's actions undercut it. A ProPublica investigation into a vanished FBI probe of donations from a government contractor adds further pressure; the FBI said it found nothing implicating Collins, and her office denies the bribery allegations, according to MS NOW.

Summarized by PolitiKool from MS NOW’s reporting. Read the full story at MS NOW →