Susan Collins

For the artist, see Susan Alexis Collins.

Susan Margaret Collins (born December 7 1952 in Caribou, Maine) is an American politician, the junior U.S. Senator from Maine and a Republican.

Biography

Collins is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of St. Lawrence University. She worked for Senator William Cohen from 1975 until 1987, when she became chair of the Maine commission on financial regulation. She served in this position until 1992, when she briefly served as New England regional director of the National Small Business Administration. She was the Republican candidate in the Maine gubernatorial election of 1994, but both she and the Democratic candidate, former Governor Joe Brennan, were defeated by the Independent candidate, Angus King.

In 1996, when Senator William Cohen announced his retirement, Collins announced her Senate candidacy. After a difficult three-way primary, she defeated Democrat Joe Brennan in the general election by a 49% to 44% margin. She was reelected in 2002 over State Senator Chellie Pingree (D) 58% - 42%.

Collins is up for re-election in 2008. Representative Tom Allen has publicly stated that he is considering running against Senator Collins.

Senate career

Often labeled as a moderate Republican, Collins often breaks with her party. In the U.S. Senate, Collins played an important role during the Senate's impeachment trial of Bill Clinton, when she and fellow Maine Senator Olympia Snowe sponsored a motion that would have allowed the Senate to vote separately on the charges and the remedy. When the motion failed, both Snowe and Collins subsequently voted to acquit, believing that while Clinton had broken the law by committing perjury, the charges did not amount to grounds for removal from office.

Collins voted with the majority in favor of the "Iraq War Resolution" authorizing President George W. Bush to go to war against Iraq, on October 10, 2002. The final vote was 77-23.

On October 21,2003, Collins was one of the three Republican Senators to oppose the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, and voted with the Senate Democrats. The bill was passed 64-34 and sent to President George W. Bush for his signature and became law on November 5, 2003.

On May 23, 2005, Collins was one of fourteen moderate senators to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and the three Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate.

She voted against the ban on partial-birth abortions, the restrictions on travel to Cuba, harsher punishments for drug users, and opposed amending the U.S. Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriages. On taxation and trade she has taken a more moderate line, voting against some trade agreements, most recently CAFTA. In 2001 she was one of only four Republicans to vote to limit the reduction in the top tax rate and to increase the amount of tax relief for those at the bottom of the income scale. In 2003 she was the only Republican to vote in favor of spending a portion of the tax cut reserved for upper-income payers on the building of hospitals in rural areas. She has voted against drilling in ANWR and in favor of increasing the average mile-per-gallon requirement for vehicles. In September of 2005, Collins cosponsored a resolution with Senator Patrick Leahy, (D-VT), that disapproved a new rule put in place by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency that delisted coal and some other energy sources from the Clean Air Act. The resolution failed by a vote of 47-51.

Senator Collins coauthored the Collins-Lieberman intelligence reform legislation, which was signed into law in December 2004. The law represents the most sweeping changes to our intelligence community in more than 50 years and implements many of the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission.

In October 2006, President Bush signed into law major port security legislation coauthored by Senator Collins and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). The new law includes major provisions to significantly strengthen security at our nation’s ports by establishing improved cargo screening standards, providing incentives to importers to enhance their security measures, requiring the Department of Homeland Security to develop a plan for the resumption of shipping in the event of a terrorist attack, and installing radiation detectors at the 22 largest American ports by the end of 2007.

Senator Collins is a member of The Republican Main Street Partnership and supports stem cell research. She is also a member of The Republican Majority For Choice, Republicans For Choice, The Wish List, Republicans for Environmental Protection and Its My Party Too.

In February 2006, TheWhiteHouseProject.org[1] named Susan Collins one of its "8 in '08", a group of eight female politicians who could possibly run and/or be elected president in 2008.

Senator Collins was considered a possible choice to serve as the Secretary of Homeland Security if John Kerry had won the 2004 Presidential Election.^{[citation needed]} If Kerry had won in November 2004, her appointment would have provided Kerry with a Republican in his cabinet. Due to her expertise on homeland security and the high regard people in both parties hold for her, Senator Collins remains a possible choice for Secretary of Homeland Security following the 2008 Presidential Election, regardless of whether a Democrat or Republican is elected as the President of the United States. However, it is extremely unlikely that she would ever resign from the U.S. Senate while a Democrat served as Governor of Maine, since the Governor of a state fills, by appointment, a vacancy in the U.S. Senate. Democrat John Baldacci has served as Governor since 2003, and with his re-election in 2006, he will continue to hold that office until 2011.

In January 2007, Senator Collins co-sponsored a bipartisan, non-binding, resolution with John Warner, Norm Coleman, Gordon Smith, and Ben Nelson that showed the Senates dissaproval with the President's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq[2].

Senator Collins is currently the longest-serving Senator to have never missed a roll call vote.

Committee Membership

From January 2003 until January 2007, Senator Collins served as the Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and continues to serve as the committee's ranking Republican. Her tenure both as chair and ranking member has been noteworthy for her close working relationship with the committee's top Democrat, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman. She also serves on the Special Committee on Aging and the Armed Services Committee

Electoral history

• 2002 Race for U.S. Senate
  • Susan Collins (R) (inc.) 58%
  • Chellie Pingree (D) 42%
• 1996 Race for U.S. Senate
  • Susan Collins (R) 49%
  • Joe Brennan (D) 44%
• 1994 Race for Governor
  • Angus King (I) 35%
  • Joe Brennan (D) 34%
  • Susan Collins (R) 23%

References

Wikipedia information about Susan Collins This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Susan Collins". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.