First elected in 1996, Senator Collins has earned a national reputation as an effective legislator who works across party lines to seek consensus on our nation’s most important issues. She was reelected in 2002, 2008, 2014, and 2020. In 2020, she made history by becoming the first-ever Republican woman in the nation to win a fifth term. She is also the first popularly elected U.S. Senator from Maine to be elected to a fifth term. She is the seventh-most senior member of the Senate and the most senior Republican woman. She is the first Republican woman to Chair the Appropriations Committee.

 

As the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Susan Collins employs her influence, seniority, and experience to benefit the people of Maine and America. The committee has jurisdiction over all discretionary spending for the federal government. Senator Collins first joined the Appropriations Committee in 2009. In the 118th Congress, she served as Vice Chair of the full Committee and Ranking Member of the Defense Appropriation Subcommittee. 

 

In addition to her role on the Appropriations Committee, Senator Collins is a member of the Intelligence Committee and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. She was formerly the Chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and the Aging Committee.

 

Throughout her Senate service, Maine’s senior U.S. Senator has worked with members of both parties to advance landmark legislation to improve the lives of all Americans. Early in her tenure, Senator Collins led the fight with Senator Dick Durbin to repeal a $50 billion tax break for the tobacco industry. In 2004, she and Senator Joe Lieberman co-authored a law that overhauled the nation’s intelligence community, improving its effectiveness while protecting civil liberties. She was the lead Republican in the successful effort to repeal the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in December 2010. Her leadership was instrumental in ending the 16-day government shutdown in October 2013 as well as the shutdown in February 2018. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Senator Collins co-authored the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was a lifeline to millions of small businesses across the country and saved tens of millions of jobs. Her more than two decades of work to repeal unfair provisions of the Social Security Act culminated in January 2025 when the Social Security Fairness Act she co-authored was signed into law, restoring earned Social Security benefits for millions of Americans.

 

Since entering the Senate, Senator Collins has remained dedicated to strengthening American health care and biomedical research. In 1997, she founded the Senate Diabetes Caucus and led the effort in Congress to more than triple federal funding for diabetes research. As the founder and co-chair of the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease, she has worked to increase funding for Alzheimer’s research and to strengthen support for family caregivers. She has championed legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs and launched the Senate’s first bipartisan investigation into the causes, impacts, and potential solutions to egregious insulin price increases. In the 118^th Congress, 1,868 standalone health care bills were introduced in both chambers of Congress. Of these, only 15 were signed into law, and five of those bills were introduced or coauthored by Senator Collins.

 

Senator Collins received the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society for her work to support veterans. In 2023, she received the Naval Heritage Award—the Navy’s highest public service award—from the Secretary of the Navy for her tireless advocacy of shipbuilding programs. In 2024, she was selected by the British Broadcasting Corporation for its annual list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world. In January 2025, Senator Collins was awarded the Army Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest public service recognition awarded by the U.S. Army, in recognition of her  support for the Army through her leadership on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

 

She has repeatedly been ranked as the most bipartisan member of the U.S. Senate by the Lugar Center and Georgetown University. Known for her Maine work ethic, Senator Collins is the first Senator in history to have cast 9,000 votes without ever having missed a vote throughout her entire Senate service.

 

Senator Collins was born on December 7, 1952, and raised in Caribou, Maine, where her family runs a sixth-generation lumber business founded by her ancestors in 1844. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of St. Lawrence University, she is married to Thomas A. Daffron and resides in Bangor, Maine, with their dog, Pepper.