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Senator Susan Collins


Self Description

December 2005: " Born December 7, 1952, Senator Collins was raised in Caribou, a small city in northern Maine, where both her parents have at one time served as mayor. Her family runs a fifth-generation lumber business, founded by her ancestors in 1844 and operated today by two of her brothers. A 1975 magna cum laude graduate of St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Senator Collins worked for former Maine Senator William S. Cohen for 12 years. In 1987, she joined the cabinet of Maine Governor John R. McKernan as Commissioner of Professional and Financial Regulation, a position she held for five years. She then served as New England Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration from 1992 to 1993. In 1994, Senator Collins ran her first campaign for public office and became the first woman in Maine history to receive a major party nomination for governor after winning an eight-way Republican primary in June of 1994. She lost the general election in the fall.

In December of 1994, Senator Collins became the founding executive director of the Center for Family Business at Husson College in Bangor, Maine, a position she held until she resigned in 1996 to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Senator Cohen. She won both a contested Republican primary and a four-way general election later that year."

http://collins.senate.gov/public/continue.cfm?FuseAction=AboutSenatorCollins.Biography

Third-Party Descriptions

December 2010: 'The bill's GOP co-sponsor, Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), said Saturday that she knew two party colleagues - George V. Voinovich (Ohio) and Mark Steven Kirk (Ill.) - would join her, Scott Brown (Mass.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Olympia J. Snowe (Maine) in voting to end the ban. She suspected that John Ensign (Nevada) might also join them, and she called an unexpected yes vote from Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.), "gutsy."'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/18/AR2010121801729.html

July 2008: "Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the ranking Republican on the panel, had asked the GAO in 2006 to investigate the DCAA's audit practices."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/23/AR2008072301437.html

March 2008: 'Responding to a wave of defective toys and other goods, the Senate approved a measure on Thursday to overhaul the country’s consumer product laws and strengthen the beleaguered safety agency....watered down to gain the support of a core group of Republicans, most notably from Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, the senior Republican on the commerce committee, and Senator Susan Collins of Maine. The bill was sponsored by Senator Mark Pryor, Democrat of Arkansas, who said it was “more comprehensive and provides for greater transparency and enforcement” than the House bill.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/business/07consumer.html

November 2007: Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, has said that she would be the lead co-sponsor of the Senate bill. Ms. Collins, in a statement, said that the House vote [on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act--ed.]“provides important momentum” and that “there is growing support in the Senate for strengthening federal laws to protect American workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/washington/08employ.html

October 2007: Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, says 'creating and maintaining a comprehensive terrorist watch list is an enormous endeavor fraught with technical and tactical challenges.'

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-23-Watchlist_N.htm

June 2006: 'The blatant fraud, the audacity of the schemes, the scale of the waste — it is just breathtaking,' said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/washington/27katrina.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Husson College Organization Dec 23, 2005
Member of (past or present) Republican Party (U.S.) / Republican National Committee Organization
Organization Executive (past or present) Small Business Administration (SBA) Organization Dec 23, 2005
Student/Trainee (past or present) St. Lawrence University Organization Dec 23, 2005
Member of (past or present) US Senate Organization Dec 23, 2005
Subordinate of (past or present) Sen. William S. Cohen Person Dec 23, 2005

Articles and Resources

30 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 10]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Dec 19, 2010 'Don't ask, don't tell' is repealed by Senate; bill awaits Obama's signing

QUOTE: The U.S. military will for the first time in history allow gays to serve openly after the Senate voted Saturday to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," the policy that has required such troops to hide their sexual identity or risk being expelled from the services. While opponents said repeal would create a battlefield distraction that could endanger troops, supporters drew parallels to the military's decision to end racial segregation in the 1950s and the admission of women to military service academies in the 1970s.

 Washington Post
Jun 10, 2009 Lobbyists unlimited in honoring lawmakers

QUOTE: Despite a ban on gifts to lawmakers and limits on campaign contributions, lobbyists and groups that employ them can spend unlimited money to honor members of Congress or donate to non-profits connected to them or their relatives.

 USA TODAY
Jul 23, 2008 Report Says Pentagon Pressured, Intimidated Auditors

QUOTE: Auditors at an oversight agency of the Pentagon were pressured by supervisors to skew their reports on a major defense contractor's work, hiding wrongdoing and charges of overbilling, according to an 80-page report from the Government Accountability Office.

 Washington Post
Mar 07, 2008 Senate Votes to Strengthen Product Safety Laws

QUOTE: Besides increasing the staff and budget of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the legislation would create a public database of complaints about products and empower state prosecutors to act if they think the federal government is not doing enough to protect consumers.

 New York Times
Nov 08, 2007 House Approves Broad Protections for Gay Workers

QUOTE: The House on Wednesday approved a bill granting broad protections against discrimination in the workplace for gay men, lesbians and bisexuals, a measure that supporters praised as the most important civil rights legislation since the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 but that opponents said would result in unnecessary lawsuits.

 New York Times
Oct 24, 2007 Terror watch list swells to more than 755,000 names

QUOTE: The size of the list, typically used to check people entering the country through land border crossings, airports and sea ports, has been growing by 200,000 names a year since 2004. Some lawmakers, security experts and civil rights advocates warn that it will become useless if it includes too many people.

 USA TODAY
Apr 03, 2007 Privacy advocates fight for ground lost after 9/11: Five years after surrendering privacy for security, many challenge the scope of US government domestic surveillance.

QUOTE: The trade-off was one plenty of citizens and lawmakers willingly made after 9/11: less individual privacy for better national security. Five and a half years later, many are rethinking, even challenging, the government's expanded use of surveillance inside the US, spurred by revelations about the scope and number of new programs.

 Christian Science Monitor
Feb 14, 2007 Speaking Up for the Whistle-Blowers

QUOTE: Yesterday, advocates for whistle-blowers urged Congress to strengthen protections for federal employees who suffer reprisal in the workplace. The advocates were greeted with bipartisan support at a hearing held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

 Washington Post
Nov 03, 2006 U.S. Plans to Screen All Who Enter, Leave Country: Personal Data Will Be Cross-Checked With Terrorism Watch Lists; Risk Profiles to Be Stored for Years

QUOTE: "The federal government disclosed details yesterday of a border-security program to screen all people who enter and leave the United States, create a terrorism risk profile of each individual and retain that information for up to 40 years."

 Washington Post
Sep 05, 2006 Congress's Agenda Includes Pay Raise, Personnel Issues

QUOTE: Rep. Jon C. Porter (R-Nev.), chairman of the House federal workforce subcommittee, plans to hold a hearing on trends in Cabinet and other senior-level pay and may support a commission to review top government salary scales to see if they have kept pace with inflation and private-sector compensation practices.

 Washington Post
Sep 01, 2006 IRS Ends 2-Year Probe Of NAACP's Tax Status: Leader's Criticism of Bush in 2004 Did Not Violate Law, Agency Decides

QUOTE: If the NAACP were stripped of the status, donors would not be allowed to claim contributions to the group on income tax returns. Federal law requires tax-exempt nonprofit organizations to be politically nonpartisan.

 Washington Post
Aug 09, 2006 War Crimes Act Changes Would Reduce Threat Of Prosecution

QUOTE: The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments.

 Washington Post
Jun 27, 2006 'Breathtaking' Waste and Fraud in Hurricane Aid

QUOTE: Hurricane Katrina...produced one of the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history, costing taxpayers up to $2 billion...

 New York Times
Jun 08, 2006 Gay Marriage Amendment Fails in Senate

QUOTE: A constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, backed by President Bush and conservative groups, was soundly defeated in the Senate yesterday after proponents failed to persuade a bare majority of all senators to support the measure.

 Washington Post
May 26, 2006 Worker Often Took Data Home

QUOTE: The Department of Veterans Affairs data analyst who lost 26.5 million veterans' personal information when his home was burglarized had routinely taken such data home since 2003, VA Inspector General George J. Opfer said yesterday.

 Washington Post
Mar 29, 2006 Senate Votes Down Outside Ethics Office

QUOTE: On a 67 to 30 vote, the Senate defeated a bipartisan proposal to create an office of public integrity, which its backers said was designed to strengthen enforcement of Senate rules and bolster voters' trust in Congress in the aftermath of the guilty plea in January of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

 Washington Post
Mar 22, 2006 Chertoff Seeks to Improve Chemical Plants' Security

QUOTE: Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday that the time has come for the federal government to regulate security at chemical plants, but that it should rely on the industry to devise its own way to meet targets and use private contractors to audit compliance. Addressing an American Chemistry Council forum, Chertoff stopped short of endorsing a Senate bill that would authorize his department to shut down high-risk plants that fail to submit adequate security plans. But he backed its approach of assigning 15,000 U.S. plants to one of four risk groups, setting performance goals for each category and leaving details up to operators.

 Washington Post
Feb 16, 2006 Accepting Responsibility, With an Asterisk

QUOTE: Since Bush won the presidency in 2000 with a promise to usher in a "new era of personal responsibility," a public acceptance of culpability is de rigueur when something goes wrong. But admitting mistakes is an entirely different matter.

 Washington Post
Dec 23, 2005 FEMA Slows Search for Kids From Katrina

QUOTE: Efforts to locate 500 children still classified as missing after Hurricane Katrina are stalled because the Federal Emergency Management Agency, citing privacy laws, has refused to share its evacuee database with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children...

 Washington Post
Sep 20, 2005 Immigration Nominee's Credentials Questioned

QUOTE: The Bush administration is seeking to appoint a lawyer with little immigration or customs experience to head the troubled law enforcement agency that handles those issues, prompting sharp criticism from some employee groups, immigration advocates and homeland security experts.

 Washington Post

30 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 10]