MAINE PUBLIC • May 6, 2025
Maine Sen. Susan Collins pressed President Trump's agriculture secretary on Tuesday for details on when farmers will receive remaining federal funds that were frozen as part of the Trump administration's policy changes and cost-cutting initiatives. During a subcommittee hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Collins told U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins that she has heard from numerous farmers in Maine who were still waiting for word on previously approved grants or loans that had been frozen. Collins, a Republican who chairs the powerful budget-writing Appropriations Committee, told the secretary that the uncertainty is troubling to the farming industry. Maine Sen. Angus King, meanwhile, had a spirited exchange with Trump's secretary of veteran's affairs over a list of hundreds of cancelled federal contracts.