By Michael Shepherd - Sept. 12, 2023
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The Maine delegation will play an active roles in a "September from hell" facing Congress. It is going to be a busy month in Washington, D.C., from a Sept. 30 deadline to avert a government shutdown to rising angst over stalled military promotions and a busy campaign bearing down.

Semafor called it a "September from hell." Members of Maine's delegation are at the center of many of these debates, led by Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican at the tip of the spear on government funding. The Senate Appropriations Committee, which she leads with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, reached a milestone in July by advancing all 12 of the funding bills that it is responsible for.

But narrow Republican control of the House has made the spending environment uncertain. Many conservatives in the lower chamber want to force big spending reductions. In a Friday interview in Old Town, Collins noted that senators will vote this week on three of them covering veterans programs, agriculture and transportation and try to reconcile them with the lower chamber.

That will be complicated, so Collins said averting a shutdown will take yet another temporary funding extension, saying the consequences of failure on that front would be "enormous for our military, for people who are dependent on federal assistance and for the taxpayers."

"Whenever there is a government shutdown, it ends up costing taxpayers more than if we did our job and got the bills passed on time," she said.

Both Collins and Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, have criticized Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, for his holds on military promotions and other appointments in protest of new Pentagon policies giving time off and travel stipends to military members seeking abortions across state lines.

King and Democrats are looking at workarounds on this issue, something that will take more importance this fall when Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, leaves his post. Tuberville has said he wants to force individual votes on lower-ranking nominees, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, has resisted for reasons of precedent. But members are getting impatient and may force something to be done.

"You cannot allow this to go on indefinitely," King told Roll Call.

While House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California, deals with the spending cliff and angst from his conservative flank, he is also dealing with a desire in his caucus to impeach President Joe Biden. He endorsed an inquiry on that topic Tuesday.

The office of U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine's swing 2nd District, said he had no thoughts on that item early Tuesday. It comes just after McCarthy's political machine endorsed state Rep. Austin Theriault, R-Fort Kent, in the 2024 race against the centrist congressman. That run is expected to be final by the end of the month, putting Golden under the gun during a chaotic September in many more ways than one.