Susan Collins Swipes Trump Over 'Arbitrary' Grant Fund Cancellations

During a Senate Appropriations Committee markup on Thursday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) spoke about the Trump administration's cancellation of grants.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Madam Chairman.

00:01Senator Baldwin, I meant in my opening remarks to indicate that I failed to accomplish what I intended to do

00:07between last Thursday and this Thursday in having conversations with you,

00:11and I know that you have submitted some amendments to your amendment that you offered last week.

00:18I'm not yet prepared to support your amendment, but having failed you in my commitment that I would work with you,

00:25I restate that if I have any credibility to see that we get this into a, to make sure that it's in a form that is satisfactory.

00:43Are there further comments?

00:47Senator Murray.

00:48The amendment that Senator Baldwin has offered is really important, and I really want to thank her for offering it.

00:54This committee has, on a bipartisan basis, provided critical funding for the National Science Foundation

01:00to propel exactly the sort of cutting-edge scientific research that has really made America the envy of the world.

01:07But unfortunately, since taking office, President Trump has not only failed to get these funds out for this fiscal year,

01:14he has actually terminated hundreds of existing research awards.

01:18Those cancellations have really cut off some really vital research and support for STEM education, just as one example.

01:28This is a massive own goal for our country, and these terminations, they've got to be reversed.

01:34And I strongly support this amendment to restore the canceled grants.

01:38I really encourage my colleagues to support this amendment.

01:41I share the senator's concerns about canceled grants that apparently are arbitrary cancellations.

01:58I do think that the list is not comprehensive enough, and I would like very much to work with the senator

02:08to expand the grounds for cancellation, since I think that the three that are included are all valid ones,

02:20but are not comprehensive enough.

02:23And I, too, would like to join with Chairman Moran in working with the senator to come up with additional grants,

02:34because there's no doubt that arbitrary cancellation of important grants is a serious problem.