As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, she controls the legislation that sets NASA budgets. She expressed bipartisan concern over the FY2027 proposal to cut NASA to $18.8 billion.Source: background

Is Susan Collins supporting Artemis II funding?

Collins expressed concern over the FY2027 NASA budget cuts, aligning with bipartisan congressional resistance. Congress previously rejected the same White House request and funded NASA at $24.4 billion.Source: background

What committee does Susan Collins chair?

The Senate Appropriations Committee, which sets federal spending levels for all agencies including NASA and defence.

Background

Susan Collins (R-ME) has served in the US Senate since 1997 and is one of its most consistently bipartisan members. She chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, which sets final federal spending levels for all government agencies, giving her leverage over budgets from defence to NASA independently of White House requests. Collins is known for breaking with Republican leadership on select issues where she judges executive overreach or institutional norms to be at stake, a pattern that has made her the most-cited Republican crossover in Lowdown's 2026 coverage.

On Iran war powers, Collins's position evolved across 2026. She criticised Trump's 'annihilation' rhetoric without crossing the floor on the first five War Powers Resolution votes, then publicly backed Senator Murkowski's Iran AUMF draft as its second Republican co-sponsor on 25 April. On 30 April 2026, she voted for the sixth WPR motion as only the second Republican to defy the administration across six Iran votes. On 13 May, she was among three Republicans (with Murkowski and Paul) who voted for the seventh resolution that fell 49-50. On 19 May 2026, she was among four crossing Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee discharge motion that cleared 50-47, placing the Kaine war-powers resolution on the floor calendar for the first time in eight attempts — the conflict's first successful procedural advance. Collins also crossed on the Cuba war-powers vote of 29 April, voting with Democrats to demand withdrawal alongside Rand Paul.

Her significance in Lowdown's coverage spans Iran, Cuba, Artemis II, and the midterms. On Artemis II, she expressed bipartisan concern over the FY2027 NASA budget proposal of $18.8 billion, the same White House top-line Congress rejected the previous year in favour of $24.4 billion; as Appropriations chair she is the most credible legislative check on that cut. Collins is also a factor in the 2026 Senate midterm calculus as the archetypal moderate Republican whose crossovers signal the outer limit of Republican institutionalism.