From My Family to Yours, Happy Holidays

With each year we have a new opportunity to recognize our shared goals and achievements, offering our time and energy to support one another when challenges arise. I am grateful to towns across Maine dedicated to their communities, their residents, and our state. Working together has always been our strength, and the past year proved that once again we are stronger when we work together.

However, it is difficult to recall a year more challenging than the one we just experienced — a year that required a steady focus on our founding principles and shared values. For these reasons, I spent hours on the Senate Floor reminding my colleagues — and many of you back home — about the vision our founders demonstrated when they laid the blueprint for the American experiment. A cornerstone in their understanding was a duty to civic engagement and community. I often refer to Maine as a big town with long roads, and in my travels throughout our state, I am reassured by the grassroots participation in our civic process and the neighborly feel that makes Maine unique. 

My legislative priorities remain largely the same: supporting Maine veterans, small businesses, and our heritage industries like agriculture, forest products and the marine economy. Additionally, I am grateful to have an exceptional team across Maine ready to assist you with issues involving the federal government. Whether you are facing challenges related to veterans’ services, Social Security, the IRS, passports or other matters, I encourage you to reach out to our offices in Presque Isle, Bangor, Augusta, Portland, or Biddeford. We are here to help and welcome the opportunity to work on your behalf.

Together, I am confident we can continue building a stronger and more prosperous future for our state and nation. Thank you for being one of the many reasons Maine is such a special place. It is truly an honor to serve you and to know you. Mary and I wish you a happy, healthy, and safe 2026.

___________________________________________________________

Strengthening National Security and Supporting Maine Businesses

If you’re online a lot or a cable news junkie, you may think that Congress can’t come together to agree on the time of day, let alone any important legislation. But national security has always been a place where we can set aside some of our differences for the safety of Americans at home and abroad.

For over six decades, Congress has taken a bipartisan approach to ensure that America’s military and defense forces have the training and equipment to carry out their missions and protect our interests at home and abroad. This year, the Senate continued that tradition and passed a defense bill for the Department of Defense (DoD) that will make our nation safer and stronger.

As our country faces some of its greatest challenges, the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) makes important investments in Maine people and businesses that are critical to the safety and security of our country.

There are many important provisions in this legislation — including support for troops and their families, investment in Maine research, protecting the mental health of our servicemembers, and needed oversight of the Department of Defense. For example, the FY26 NDAA authorizes $450 million towards the future procurement of a destroyer that Bath Iron Works (BIW) can compete to build. It also includes $9 million for the University of Maine System to continue vital research and workforce development training. 

Importantly, the NDAA includes the Coast Guard Authorization Act. One provision within the Coast Guard provision is a pilot program embedding behavioral health technicians in Coast Guard clinics and authorization of additional counselors to serve Coast Guard personnel in remote and maritime communities such as Maine’s coastal boat stations.

All told, this year’s defense bill will make our country safer, strengthen our local economy, and support the Maine men and women who fight for our freedoms. Now, that's what I call a win!

___________________________________________________________

Fighting for Transparency in Health Care

Earlier this month, I spoke on the Senate Floor to argue the importance of reinstating the Richardson Waiver to return public input and transparency and oversight to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

This is because HHS Secretary Kennedy chose to repeal the Richardson Waiver, a rule adopted 54 years ago, essentially obscuring public notice periods that HHS had in place to ensure the opportunity for public input.

Rescinding the Richardson Waiver is not about left or right, it's about good governance — in fact, the Joint Resolution of Disapproval that I brought to the Senate floor received a bipartisan 50-50 vote. I was encouraged to see that the fundamental value of transparency still has bipartisan support.

When I spoke on the floor, I shared:

“And what we're really talking about is simply allowing the public to know what these proposed actions will be and ability to comment. What's wrong with that? What's objectionable about that? It doesn't slow things down appreciably. It's not a huge impediment to executive action. And we're not talking about emergency actions. We're talking about fundamental policy decisions being made by the department."

As your government, we are working to serve you and your best interests. Transparency is critical in that process and this waiver ensures that you have all available information at your fingertips. As we look into the new year, I will continue fighting for that transparency in each branch of the federal government.

___________________________________________________________

Holding the VA Accountable

After months of deflecting, dissembling, and doublespeak, there are now reports of damaging staffing cuts at the Veterans Administration (VA) — and as many as 35,000 health care positions could be eliminated in the upcoming weeks.

Abraham Lincoln outlined the mission of the VA in his second inaugural address when he said it is America’s responsibility ‘to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.’ And since its founding in 1930, the VA has worked to repay the debt we, as a country, owe to the servicemembers who defend our principles.

That is why the news that this administration is hollowing out this hallowed agency is a disservice to everyone who has worn the uniform. Cutting staff means more than cutting positions — it means cutting services and denying timely care to those who have earned these benefits. And it means asking the selfless medical professionals and support staff at the VA to do more with less. The VA has never enjoyed the budget it deserves or a smooth agency-wide, integrated process, but to be rewarded with crippling staffing cuts will cause serious physical and mental harm to our veterans.

Now that they are being questioned about these cuts, the administration is trying to claim these are merely vacant positions that are going to be done away with. But to anyone who has walked into any business with a ‘help wanted’ sign on the window and faced slow or shoddy service, we know that an unfilled job is not an unnecessary job — especially when the VA Inspector General’s office found a severe nationwide staff shortage earlier this year. So rather than stepping up for our veterans, this White House is cutting back. That’s unacceptable.

On more than one occasion this past year in the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I have asked administration representatives point blank whether they had plans to cancel contracts or cut staff. In those exchanges, they would claim they wouldn’t fire direct care workers, but didn’t address whether they would or would not fill direct care vacancies. Their responses at the time seemed incomplete or evasive; in the light of these new reports, the VA staff’s denials seem outright dishonest and I intend to do everything in my power to ensure Maine's veterans have the care and resources they need to live healthy, successful lives.