Susan Collins

The United States has broad and fundamental national security interests in the Arctic.

I am surprised that the President's budget request would cut the Office of Health Affairs by 12 percent compared to last year.

The Coast Guard still requires about $32 million to complete the reactivation.

I appreciate the difficult decisions that must be made in every budget cycle overall.

I am disappointed that the Administration's fiscal year 2010 budget provides only a slight overall increase in homeland security funding for DHS.

Although I am encouraged by this good news, I continue to be concerned about the lack of alignment between the branches' funding timelines, which could increase the overall cost to the taxpayer and threaten the viability of the project…

We need more emphasis on military construction to properly modernize and maintain the industrial infrastructure.

I must say, as I talked with Mr. Kampelman and read this op-ed, it put forth an inspiring vision, one that I think all of us wish could come about today.

I look forward to getting the specific statistics from you, because it's my understanding that very few of these pirates have actually been brought to justice.

I'm very troubled by your statement in your testimony saying that the root cause of Somali piracy lies in the poverty that continues to plague this troubled country.

But how many of them have actually been prosecuted?

Raising the Federal truck weight limit for Maine to 100,000 pounds would keep heavy trucks on the interstates, which are designed to carry more weight than the rural roads.

I did not support passage of the Recovery Act, but I have always supported investment in transportation because I do believe that these are the types of investments that should be included in any economic stimulus.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was an important step forward in efforts to rehabilitate and improve our Nation's transportation infrastructure system, but there is more that can be done.

I am disappointed that the overall total for transportation was only $48.1 billion, and of that total, only $27.5 billion was included for our States to address their ever-growing highway and bridge needs.

Additional funding for infrastructure is what stimulus should be about.

I would have preferred more spending be included in the Recovery Act for crumbling highway and bridge infrastructure, as well as water infrastructure and transit.

He seemed so committed to reopening schools for girls, and pledged personally to me that better treatment of girls and women would be among his highest priorities.

I want to follow up on Senator Mikulski's concerns about the treatment of women at a time when we're proposing to ramp up our economic assistance to Afghanistan.

I do believe that we need a thorough evaluation of the preparedness at the State and local levels.

There are huge variations in the capabilities at the State and local level.

It should be prioritized.

I believe the Federal Government should have stepped in and set the priorities.

DHS in general has a responsibility for assisting State and local governments in their preparedness and response capabilities.

That to me is an appalling answer to someone who has a child who is at high risk and needs the vaccine.