In February 2025, Susan Collins voted against a budget amendment to guarantee full and uninterrupted funding for the health care and benefits of veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxins under the PACT Act. In June 2025 she voted against a motion to change the One Big Beautiful Bill Act so it would not reduce or terminate SNAP benefits for Veterans, and the law removed veterans' exemption from SNAP's work rules. She also voted against rehiring veterans fired from federal jobs and against requiring the VA to report its plan for cutting its workforce.
Susan Collins voted to confirm Doug Collins as secretary of veterans affairs. In 2025 VA Maine lost far more workers than it hired, most of the departures from Togus, the state's VA hospital, where veterans faced a two-month wait for primary care appointments.
Susan Collins's Votes on Veterans' Benefits and the VA Leadership
- Susan Collins Voted Against Guaranteeing PACT Act Funding for Toxic-Exposed Veterans in February 2025. On February 21, 2025, Susan Collins voted no on Senator Richard Blumenthal's amendment to the budget resolution "to ensure full and uninterrupted funding for Department of Veterans Affairs health care and benefits provided by" the PACT Act, the 2022 law for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxins. It failed 47 to 52. Burn Pits 360, a veterans' advocacy group, said the amendment would have ensured full and uninterrupted funding for veterans' healthcare and benefits. Under VA Secretary Doug Collins, the department later stopped presuming that male breast cancer in toxic-exposed veterans was service-connected: the department no longer presumes service connection for male breast cancer, ProPublica reported.
- Susan Collins Voted Against Protecting Veterans' Food Aid in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in June 2025. On June 30, 2025, Susan Collins voted no on Senator Tammy Duckworth's motion to send the bill back to committee with instructions to change it so it would not reduce or terminate SNAP benefits for Veterans, homeless individuals, young former foster children, and parents of children under 18. It failed 49 to 51. The law as passed eliminates that exemption for veterans, and Many states rolled out the stricter work requirement Feb. 1, 2026. Around 1.2 million veterans with lower incomes receive SNAP nationally.
- Susan Collins Voted to Confirm VA Secretary Doug Collins, Whose Department Cut Staff and Contracts. On February 4, 2025, Susan Collins voted to confirm Doug Collins as secretary of veterans affairs. Under Secretary Doug Collins the department reduced its staff by nearly 30,000 in fiscal 2025, announced the termination of collective bargaining agreements for most employees, and killed nearly 600 contracts, including one to maintain a gene sequencing device used to develop better cancer treatments. By fiscal 2026 VA facilities reported 4,712 severe occupational staffing shortages.
- Susan Collins Voted Against Rehiring Veterans Fired From Federal Jobs in March 2025. On March 14, 2025, Susan Collins voted no on Senator Tammy Duckworth's amendment "to make veteran Federal employees who were involuntarily dismissed without cause eligible for reinstatement and to require reports from Executive agencies on the number of veteran employees fired." It failed 47 to 53. In the weeks before, the VA alone had dismissed more than 1,000 employees and then more than 1,400 probationary employees, and House Appropriations Democrats estimated nearly 6,000 veterans had been fired across the government.
- Susan Collins Voted Against Requiring the VA to Disclose Its Workforce-Cut Plan in August 2025. On August 1, 2025, Susan Collins voted no on an amendment requiring the secretary of veterans affairs to give Congress "a report on the plan of the Secretary for Department of Veterans Affairs workforce reduction in fiscal year 2026." It failed 45 to 50. By then the VA was down more than 600 doctors and about 1,900 nurses for the year, and in 2026 it began planning to eliminate 25,000 vacant positions.
- Susan Collins Voted to Confirm Russell Vought, Whose Office Ordered the Layoff Plans. On February 6, 2025, Susan Collins voted to confirm Russell Vought as budget director. On February 26, 2025 Vought's office and the Office of Personnel Management told agencies that Agency Heads shall promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force; a week later the VA's plan called for cutting over 80,000 jobs, a plan the department dropped in July 2025 in favor of 30,000 total employees leaving through attrition.
- Susan Collins Voted to Confirm Mehmet Oz, Whose Medicaid Work Rule Exempts Only Fully Disabled Veterans. On April 3, 2025, Susan Collins voted to confirm Mehmet Oz to run the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. His agency's Medicaid work-requirement rule, which takes effect by January 1, 2027, exempts veterans only if they are rated at total (100%) disability, so veterans with partial disability ratings must report work hours to keep coverage.
- Susan Collins Voted Six Times Against Ending U.S. Military Action Against Iran. Susan Collins voted six times against Senate measures to end U.S. military action against Iran that Congress never authorized, on June 27, 2025 and five times between March 4 and April 22, 2026. As of the Pentagon's October 15, 2026 report, 21 U.S. service members have died and 865 have been injured in the war.
What the VA Cuts and New Work Rules Under Susan Collins's Votes Mean for Maine Veterans
- Togus staff. VA Maine lost 258 full-time workers and made 111 hires in 2025, three-quarters of the departures from Togus, where The hospital saw 34 nurses, 17 medical assistants, 12 doctors and nine psychologists leave, The Maine Monitor reported in May 2026.
- Shortages. VA Maine designated 73 occupations, 57 of them clinical, as severe staffing shortages in fiscal 2026, according to the VA inspector general's table for the VA Maine Healthcare System in Augusta.
- Food aid. Maine's Department of Health and Human Services says the law's SNAP work rules end exemptions for veterans (5,669 people) in the state.
Frequently Asked Questions About Susan Collins on Veterans
What is Susan Collins's record on veterans under Trump?
Susan Collins voted in 2025 against guaranteed PACT Act funding, against protecting veterans' SNAP benefits in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, against rehiring fired veteran federal workers and against requiring a VA workforce-cut plan. She voted to confirm VA Secretary Doug Collins, whose department cut its staff, and in Maine the Togus VA hospital lost dozens of nurses and doctors in 2025.
Did Susan Collins vote to take food stamps away from veterans?
Susan Collins voted against a June 30, 2025 motion to keep the One Big Beautiful Bill Act from reducing or terminating SNAP benefits for veterans, and the law eliminates that exemption veterans had from SNAP's work rules. Veterans without a qualifying disability must now show 80 hours a month of work or activity to keep their food stamps beyond three months; the law does not end SNAP for all veterans.
Did Susan Collins vote to confirm VA Secretary Doug Collins?
Yes. Susan Collins voted to confirm Doug Collins as secretary of veterans affairs on February 4, 2025. In the VA inspector general's fiscal 2026 review, 86% reported shortages for nurses, up from 79% the previous year, Military Times reported.
Last updated: 2026-10-25