Susan Collins on Disaster Response: Votes Against Firefighter and Land-Agency Staff, the Noem and Mullin FEMA, and Weather Service Cuts

On February 20, 2025, Susan Collins voted against a budget measure supporting federal wildland firefighters and against one to reinstate fired Forest Service, Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management workers. By July 2025, thousands of Forest Service firefighting jobs were vacant, according to internal data reported by ProPublica.

Collins voted to confirm Homeland Security Secretaries Kristi Noem and Markwayne Mullin, whose department runs FEMA, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose department runs the National Weather Service. Under Noem, FEMA lost thousands of employees and ended a disaster-prevention grant program that Maine communities had applied to before a court ruled the termination unlawful. In March 2025, the weather office in Gray, Maine, suspended some weather balloon launches for lack of staff.

Susan Collins's Votes and Confirmations on FEMA, Firefighting and the Weather Service

• Collins Voted Against a Budget Measure Supporting Federal Wildland Firefighters in February 2025. On February 20, 2025, Susan Collins voted no on an amendment to the budget resolution creating a reserve fund supporting Federal wildland firefighters or other Federal workers who reduce wildfire risk. It failed 48 to 52. Internal data reported by ProPublica showed more than 4,500 Forest Service firefighting jobs, up to 27 percent, were vacant in July 2025, a count the Agriculture Department disputed.
• Collins Voted Against Rehiring Fired Forest, Park and Land-Agency Workers in February 2025. On February 20, 2025, Susan Collins voted no on a budget amendment relating to reinstating the fired Federal employees at the Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management. It failed 48 to 52. By the end of 2025 the National Parks Conservation Association put full-time Park Service employment at 12,600, down 24 percent since the start of the Trump administration.
• Collins Voted to Confirm Kristi Noem, Under Whom FEMA Lost Thousands of Workers and Sat on Billions in Disaster Money. On January 25, 2025, Susan Collins voted to confirm Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security, the department that runs FEMA, and she was confirmed 59 to 34. Under Noem, over 4,300 employees separated from FEMA in fiscal year 2025, the Government Accountability Office found; she required that she personally signs off on all funding requests for more than $100,000, and by the end of 2025 FEMA was sitting on more than $15 billion in unspent funds. After the July 4, 2025 Texas Hill Country flood, FEMA answered just over 15,000 of the approximately 55,000 calls from survivors. FEMA also ended its main disaster-prevention grant program, a decision a federal judge ruled unlawful: On December 11, 2025, the judge issued a final ruling, and FEMA reopened the program in 2026 under court order.
• Collins Voted to Confirm Markwayne Mullin, Whose FEMA Still Owed Communities Billions and Denied Alaska's Typhoon Appeal. On March 23, 2026, Susan Collins voted to confirm Markwayne Mullin as Secretary of Homeland Security, and he was confirmed 54 to 45. Weeks later, internal documents showed that FEMA owes communities almost $10 billion for disaster recovery work. In June 2026 FEMA denied Alaska a larger federal share of its ex-Typhoon Halong costs, and the denial leaves the federal government covering 75%. In May 2026, with Mullin as secretary, the President's FEMA Review Council recommended a higher damage threshold for federal disaster aid, and by the council's own calculation there would have been 29% fewer federal disaster declarations from 2012 to 2025.
• Collins Voted to Confirm Howard Lutnick, Whose Commerce Department Left the National Weather Service Short-Staffed. On February 18, 2025, Susan Collins voted to confirm Howard Lutnick as Secretary of Commerce, which runs NOAA and the National Weather Service, and he was confirmed 51 to 45. In March 2025 the weather service began temporarily suspending some weather balloon launches in Albany, New York, and Gray, Maine for lack of forecast office staff, and by spring 2026 its forecasters and hydrologists numbered about 300 fewer than it had been in late 2024. NOAA also said it will no longer be updating the Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database, the national count of the costliest storms, floods and fires.
• Collins Voted Against Keeping Funding for the Stations That Carry Emergency Alerts in July 2025. On July 16, 2025, Susan Collins voted no on an amendment to strike the rescissions of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It failed 47 to 52. The law that followed took back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting; in Maine, the public broadcaster that lost its federal grants is the backbone of Maine's emergency alert system.

What the FEMA and Weather Service Cuts Under Susan Collins's Votes Meant for Maine

• Disaster prevention. A total of 18 resilience projects in Maine had their BRIC applications terminated in April 2025, including York County coastal flood projects, and had to seek other funding, The Maine Monitor reported; a court later ruled the termination unlawful.
• Weather forecasting. The National Weather Service office in Gray, Maine, was cleared to launch its twice-daily weather balloons only when staffing permits, under a March 2025 notice.
• Emergency alerts. Maine Public, which coordinates with the Maine Emergency Management Agency to get alerts out across its 21 FM stations, lost about $2.5 million in grants from CPB for the coming year.

Frequently Asked Questions About Susan Collins on Disaster response

Last updated: 2026-10-25

Candidate Records