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By Michael Shepherd - Thursday, July 10,Ā 2025
Susan Collins is at the center of another government funding issue with a deadline looming. Will Republicans bypass her on spending cuts? I also look at Paul LePage's fundraising haul and how it compares to history.

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šŸ“·Ā Sen. Susan Collins asks a question during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the rescissions package on Capitol Hill on, June 25, 2025. (AP photo by Mariam Zuhaib)

What I'm hearing


āœ‚ļø Here's the state of play on the president's package of spending cuts.

ā—‰ U.S. Sen. Susan Collins is back at the center of a major spending issue. The Senate Appropriations Committee that she leads now has to deal with President Donald Trump's proposal to claw backĀ $9.4 billion in funding to health programs and public broadcasting.

ā—‰ Top Republicans including Collins may look to amend itĀ to protect programs they support, according to Politico. The Maine senator gave a closed-door presentation to her caucus on Wednesday outlining her problems with the bill, Punchbowl News reported.

ā—‰ We already know what those concerns are, and they are pretty narrow. She spoke out at a hearingĀ against cuts to PEPFAR, the global HIV/AIDS prevention program started under former President George W. Bush. She also told Maine Public that she wants to shield funding for local TV and radio stations.

ā—‰ Roughly $1 billion is at stake for NPR and its member stations. Collins criticized NPR for a "partisan bent" but noted that it only gets $4 million of the money at stake in the president's rescissions package. Maine Public has said 12 percent of its budget is at risk.

ā—‰ "NPR should be providing the kind of neutral coverage that Maine Public, for the most part, does provide," Collins told the Maine affiliate earlier this month.

ā—‰ Collins is not alone on these items. More conservative senators from rural states including Alaska and South Dakota oppose the cuts to local NPR affiliates that serve as staples in the most remote parts of the country.

ā—‰ Everyone is under the gun here. If Congress doesn't act by July 18, the Trump administration will have to spend the money it wants to cut. If the bill fails, the White House will "go nuts," Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told Politico, underscoring the stakes for Republicans to resolve it quickly.

ā—‰ The question is whether Trump will swallow major changes to his plan or whether the White House can win enough support to pass it around Collins' opposition. It did just that with the "One Big Beautiful Bill" that the Maine senator criticized for its effects on the state's rural health care system.

ā—‰ "Unfortunately, they felt unable to accommodate my concerns, because they would have lost votes on the other side," Collins told WGAN last week, detailing conversations with Vice President JD Vance and other top Republicans.

ā—‰ Democrats are still trying hard to make Collins wear the effects of that bill going into her 2026 election year. She and her allies have countered by pointing to her lobbying to insert a $50 billion fund for rural hospitals. It's a precarious balance right now, but that's normal for Collins in the Trump era.

šŸ“° Were you forwarded this email? Maine Politics Insider includes a BDN subscription and custom datasets for subscribers that you will only find here.Ā Subscribe here, and here's how to donate to the BDN.

Reading list


🫓 Planned Parenthood wants money from Maine to offset Medicaid cuts from Trump's megabill.

The other side: "It’s good to have allies in Washington DC again!" the evangelical Christian Civic League of Maine responded to the news on Facebook.

šŸ“¦ Look behind the scenes at what it took to bring Amazon to Maine.

What they're saying:Ā ā€œI told Gary, ā€˜You need to come up here. This is Amazon we’re dealing with,ā€™ā€ saidĀ Pam Wilcox, who manages the property for owner Gary Gagnon. said. ā€œHe’s like, ā€˜What? Amazon coming to Caribou?ā€™ā€

šŸ–Øļø Brewer is on track to get Maine's first 3D-printed home village.

ā˜€ļøĀ From the Portland Press Herald: Maine's solar installers are planning an end-of-year sprint because a federal tax credit is ending.

šŸ‘Ž An Aroostook school district that never shot down a budget has now voted down two.

šŸŽ¤ This Old Town teen spoke at a Senate hearing on diabetes research.

šŸƒ They're running.Ā We're tracking them so you don't have to.Ā See the tracker — featuring both declared candidates for governor and the prospective ones our sources are telling us about — here.
šŸ“·Ā Former Gov. Paul LePage speaks at the closing rally of his gubernatorial campaign on Nov. 7, 2022, at the American Legion hall in Scarborough. (BDN photo by David Marino Jr.)

News and notes

Ā 

šŸŽŗ The former governor trumpeted the first fundraising haul of his new campaign.

ā—‰ Former Gov. Paul LePage raised $550,000 just under two months into his campaign against U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine's 2nd District, the challenger's campaign said Wednesday. It did not release cash on hand ahead of the July 15 deadline to report to the Federal Election Commission.

ā—‰ This is over the $500,000 benchmark that I set for his campaignĀ in this newsletter. Former Rep. Bruce Poliquin raised $880,000 in his opening quarter when he faced Golden inĀ 2021, although that came three months closer to Election Day.

ā—‰ Team LePage compared his haul favorably to Golden's in the first quarter of this year. But Golden raised $820,000 in the second quarter and has $1 million on hand, making for a large head start on the former governor.

ā—‰ Campaigns and donors care about the fundraising gaps between candidates, but they don't matter a ton at this early stage. These guys are in one of the biggest races on the House map, and chances are thatĀ they will have the money and air support to run strong campaigns.

ā˜Žļø Need to reach members of the Legislature? We've pulled together their contact info for Insiders to have in one place. See it here.

On the move


šŸ“° The Maine Trust for Local News announced two leadership hires: Sean Sullivan as theĀ innovation and experimental strategy lead and Claire Tighe asĀ deputy managing editor for digital strategy and transformation. Sullivan once led the Maine Brewers’ Guild, while Tighe worked for NBC News.

ā¬†ļø The state is hiring an elevator inspector. (The lack of them has been a problem.)

šŸ’° The University of Maine Foundation needs someone to oversee fundraising initiatives.
Ā 
Check boards run byĀ theĀ state,Ā theĀ Maine Municipal AssociationĀ andĀ theĀ Maine Association of NonprofitsĀ for more postings. If you apply for a job, let them know you found it here.
šŸ•µļø We can't do this without you. We always need more sources to tell us what's going on in Augusta. Send intel and feedback on Maine Politics Insider to mshepherd@bangordailynews.com.
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