Over and over, Senator Collins has failed to take action to fight for the policies that Mainers need, opting instead to express her disappointment with an ineffective letter of concern. This week, Maine Democrats will highlight the issues where Collins has refused to back up the words of her letters with action.

 

This summer, when the Trump administration began to limit eligibility for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Senator Susan Collins wrote a letter of concern to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

 

But despite the growing need for food aid during the pandemic, Collins and her Republican colleagues have actually blocked efforts to increase access to nutrition benefits. While Democrats and anti-hunger advocates pushed for increases to SNAP benefits, which help feed more than 13% of essential workers, Collins and her Republican colleagues resisted their efforts. In the Senate GOP’s nearly $1 trillion coronavirus relief package, they did not include any extra funding for SNAP. Hunger advocates described the decision as “entirely divorced from the reality of the crisis this country is facing.”

 

“If Senator Collins is so concerned about Americans not getting the nutrition assistance they need, then why haven’t she and her Republican colleagues done anything about it?” said Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra. “As a United States Senator, Collins has the power to actually fix problems, but instead she just writes letters filled with empty words.”

 

###