July 20, 2008
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Q & A with Senator Susan M. Collins of Maine
Susan M. Collins was elected to represent the State of Maine in the U.S. Senate in 1996, winning both a contested Republican primary and a four-way general election. She was the 15th woman in history to be elected to the Senate in her own right as of that year. In 2002, she was re-elected to a second term.
Senator Collins is the Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security and is the Senate’s chief oversight committee. She also serves on the Armed Services Committee and the Special Committee on Aging. Senator Collins coauthored the Collins-Lieberman intelligence reform legislation, which was signed into law in December 2004. The law represents the most sweeping changes to our intelligence community in more than 50 years and implements many of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
She 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.
Senator Collins’s priorities include maintaining a strong national defense and strengthening our homeland security—but she is also a tireless advocate for education—and she continues her longstanding efforts to help small businesses create jobs; to combat consumer fraud; and to improve health care, particularly for citizens living in rural areas. She led the fight to restore millions of dollars to the Medicare program for home health care so that elderly citizens can receive needed care in their own homes. Senator Collins also founded the Senate Diabetes Caucus, and led the effort to more than double federal funding for diabetes research.
T: What are some of the ways you’ve been able to contribute to the progress of education in your home state of Maine?
Sen. SMC: Working to ensure that students have access to higher education, and a chance to participate fully in the American dream, has been a priority of mine in my time in the Senate. I have worked to secure funding for student aid programs including Pell Grants, TRIO, Perkins loans, and GEAR UP. I have introduced legislation to increase the maximum Pell grant award to $4,500 for the 2005–2006 award year, a $450 increase in a single year. It also provides higher authorization levels for the Pell maximum grant that would allow for a doubling of the maximum grant to $9,000 over the next five years.
I also have joined Senator Olympia Snowe (R–Maine) in creating a No Child Left Behind Task Force, comprised of Maine school board members, education experts, principals, teachers, and parents, to gain a broader understanding of the challenges associated with implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, particularly in rural areas. These findings will help Congress as we consider changes to NCLB at the federal level, and they will help to guide state policy makers as they consider changes to the state’s NCLB implementation plan. I am also the author of the law that provides a $250 deduction to teachers who purchase supplies for their classrooms with their own funds. This is a modest, but appropriate, step toward recognizing the invaluable services that teachers provide each and every day to our children.
The Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP), which has provided more than $4.1 million in additional funding for rural schools and school districts in Maine, is another of my initiatives. REAP was designed to level the playing field for low-income rural school systems so that rural Maine students receive a high quality education. I am pleased to announce that we have been successful in increasing federal funding for REAP each year since its enactment.
The use of technology in education is expanding, just as the development of new technologies is accelerating. One of the ways in which schools can communicate with each other—and students and teachers can communicate with their leaders—is through interactive videoconferencing. Please tell us about your recent experience with a social studies class in Cape Elizabeth.
Visiting schools and talking with students is one of my favorite activities as a United States Senator. Unfortunately, my schedule does not allow me to visit as many schools in person as I would like. So I’ve found that videoconferencing is a great tool to use to reach more classrooms and interact with students whom I cannot visit in person. The recent videoconference with Cape Elizabeth Middle School went very well. [Read this issue’s Featured Article.] The technology worked flawlessly. The students were actively engaged, asking me questions on a number of topics including how I became involved in politics, Maine jobs, environmental concerns, homeland security in Maine, and education. I was impressed at how thoughtful the questions were, and how aware the students are of the major political issues affecting Maine and the entire country.
If you could tell civics/social studies/American government instructors the ways to get citizens involved in their government, what things would you advise them to do? What information would advise them to share?
Teachers have a unique opportunity to guide students as they decide what path to take with their lives. I have visited more than 120 schools and know it is the dedication of teachers that has been instrumental in student success. I would advise teachers to continue to urge students to be aware of and take interest in the current events that are affecting not only Maine, but also the world. For those students who are interested in politics, I would encourage them to get involved in campaigns and in government. There are many opportunities to get involved in politics, from running for student council to volunteering in a state or federal office. One way for college students to learn how a congressional office runs is to work as an intern in a congressional office. My offices in Washington and Maine offer such opportunities. My first experience on Capitol Hill was as an intern for then-Congressman Bill Cohen. I enjoyed my internship in his office so much that I decided to work for him full time after I graduated from college.
Indiana University’s Center on Congress, directed by former U.S. Congressman Lee Hamilton (D-Indiana), provides information for teachers, students, and parents about Congress and what Members of Congress do. One of the lessons that people come away with is that Members must cooperate, collaborate, and deliberate to get things done. Can you share with us some of your experiences with your colleagues to achieve the proposal of a bill or funding for a project?
The Senate is built upon a foundation of collegiality and cooperation that transcends partisanship. It is a culture in which legislative goals are reached with patience and perseverance, and through the art of negotiation and compromise. In this spirit, I have worked with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to tackle a number of important issues. The groundbreaking intelligence reform bill that I wrote with Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut is an example of crossing party lines in order to do what is best for our country. It is the same reason that I joined 13 of my colleagues in working together on the issue of judicial nominees. With significant issues looming such as the ongoing war in Iraq, strengthening homeland security, dealing with the deficit, simplifying our tax code, improving our health-care system, expanding access to higher education, and safeguarding our environment, we need to be able to focus on our work without getting sidetracked by partisan politics. I hope that the success we had with the Collins-Lieberman intelligence reform bill will serve as a model as we move forward to address the other important issues facing our country.