On July 1, 2025, Maine Senator Susan Collins voted against a motion to expand the Child Tax Credit to the level of the 2021 expanded credit, and thousands of Maine children remain ineligible for the full credit. On July 30, 2026, she voted against taking up a resolution to overturn the Health and Human Services rule that ended the federal cap holding child care co-payments to 7 percent of family income.
In June 2026 Collins voted against moving immigration enforcement money into the federal child care block grant and then voted for the enforcement bill. She also voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, whose department closed the regional Head Start office that oversaw programs in Maine. In August 2024 Collins voted against cloture on H.R. 7024, a House-passed bill that would have enlarged the refundable Child Tax Credit for 2023 through 2025.
Susan Collins's Votes on Child Care and Family Benefits
- Collins Voted Against Expanding the Child Tax Credit in July 2025. On July 1, 2025, Susan Collins voted no on a motion to send the tax-and-spending bill back to committee with instructions to make changes that would increase the amount and availability of the Child Tax Credit to match the expanded 2021 credit, adjusted for inflation. It failed 47 to 53. Under the law as enacted, more than 1 in 4 children (28%) under age 17 will be ineligible for the full Child Tax Credit because their families earn too little, Columbia University's Center on Poverty and Social Policy found, and a two-parent family with two children needs at least $41,500 in income to get the full credit.
- Collins Voted Against Restoring the 7 Percent Cap on Child Care Co-Payments in July 2026. On July 30, 2026, Susan Collins voted against the motion to proceed to a resolution disapproving the Health and Human Services rule on the Child Care and Development Fund, and the resolution died when the motion failed 47 to 52. She had voted in October 2025 to confirm the Assistant Secretary for Family Support, Alex Adams, whose Administration for Children and Families issued the rule. The rule, final in May 2026, rescinds the requirements to limit family co-payments to 7 percent of family income, and to pay child care providers in advance and based on enrollment. Before it, Maine and Wisconsin had waivers in place, and Minnesota, North Carolina, and Ohio had waiver requests pending as states moved toward the cap, the Center for American Progress found, and in Ohio co-payments ran as high as 27 percent of income.
- Collins Voted Against Moving $14 Billion in Immigration Enforcement Money to Child Care in June 2026. On June 4, 2026, Susan Collins voted against waiving budget rules for an amendment to the June 2026 enforcement bill that would have redirected immigration enforcement money to carry out the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act. It failed 46 to 53, and the next day Collins voted for the bill, which passed 52 to 47. The child care block grant reaches only 13 percent of eligible families, the Center for American Progress found, leaving most eligible parents on waiting lists or paying full price.
- Collins Voted Against Protecting Food Aid for Families With Children in June 2025. On June 30, 2025, Susan Collins voted against a motion to keep the tax-and-spending bill from cutting any food assistance benefits for families with children under the age of 12 and against a second motion to protect parents and others from the bill's food aid cuts. The first motion failed 47 to 53, and the second failed 49 to 51. The law extended SNAP work rules to parents of children 14 and older, resulting in a net reduction in SNAP participation of 300,000 people in those groups, the Congressional Budget Office estimated.
- Collins Voted to Confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whose Department Closed the Head Start Office That Oversaw Maine. On February 13, 2025, Susan Collins voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services, and he was confirmed 52 to 48. In April 2025 Kennedy's department closed five of its 10 regional Head Start offices, which oversaw nearly 318,000, or 44 percent of, funded slots, including the Region 1 office in Boston: Connecticut, Maine and the rest of New England, according to the Center for American Progress. About roughly 500 from the Administration for Children and Families lost their jobs, The Imprint reported, and federal child care money for the third quarter was awarded to states on May 22, 2025, weeks late.
- Collins Voted Against Advancing a Larger Child Tax Credit in August 2024. On August 1, 2024, Susan Collins voted no on cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 7024, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act, which would have raised the refundable part of the Child Tax Credit to $1,800 for tax year 2023, $1,900 for 2024 and $2,000 for 2025. The bill needed 60 votes to advance; cloture was rejected 48-44, so the Senate did not take it up. Had the bill passed, an estimated 16 million children would have benefited, including 400,000 that would have been lifted out of poverty, according to an estimate from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported by The 19th in 2024.
What Susan Collins's Child Care and Family Votes Mean for Maine Families
- Child Tax Credit. 54,000 children in Maine, 24 percent of the state's children, are ineligible for the full Child Tax Credit under the 2025 law, according to the Center on Poverty and Social Policy, because their families' earnings are too low.
- Child care costs. Maine was one of two states with waivers in place to keep child care co-payments within reach before the May 2026 rule, which ended the federal requirement that states cap them at 7 percent of family income.
- Head Start oversight. Maine's Head Start programs lost the Region 1 office in Boston that oversaw their federal grants.
Frequently Asked Questions About Susan Collins on Child care and families
What is Susan Collins's record on child care and families under Trump?
Susan Collins voted in July 2025 against expanding the Child Tax Credit and against protecting food aid for families with children, and in 2026 against moving immigration money to child care and against overturning the rule that ended the 7 percent child care co-payment cap. She voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department closed the Head Start office that served Maine, and Alex Adams, whose agency wrote the co-payment rule.
How did Susan Collins vote on expanding the Child Tax Credit in 2025?
Susan Collins voted no on July 1, 2025 on the Bennet motion to expand the Child Tax Credit to the 2021 level, which failed 47 to 53. Under the law, a two-parent family with two children needs a minimum of $41,500 in income to get the full credit, the Center on Poverty and Social Policy found.
Did Susan Collins vote to cap child care costs for low-income families?
Susan Collins voted on July 30, 2026 against taking up a resolution to overturn the rule that rescinded the 7 percent cap on child care co-payments, and the resolution died 47 to 52. The rule covers a program that provided subsidies to more than 1.6 million children from 994,000 families each month, according to the rule itself.
Last updated: 2026-10-25