Printer-friendly version Reader Comments

The Republicans' moderate stance on the plan has put them at the center of the debate.

By DIETER BRADBURY, Political Correspondent February 7, 2009

Maine's U.S. senators found themselves in the crosshairs of a furious lobbying campaign Friday as interest groups sought to protect spending provisions in the economic stimulus package.

Educators, contractors, environmentalists and physicians staged press conferences and urged their members to contact Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

The Maine Education Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees said $166 million in funding for education and Head Start in Maine could be removed from the bill as part of a compromise negotiated by a bipartisan group that included Collins.

Greenpeace launched an e-mail campaign urging its members to contact the Maine senators because the compromise could remove more than $4.5 billion in funding nationally for energy efficiency, research and science programs.

"It's crucial that those portions don't get cut," said David Pomerantz, the New England regional organizer for Greenpeace. "We're definitely urging Sen. Collins to leave the energy provisions intact."

At the same time, the Maine chapter of Associated General Contractors held a press conference at the Portland International Jetport to draw attention to funding for construction projects.

The group said Maine stands to receive $316 million for transportation projects if the stimulus is approved as written, creating 7,680 jobs in construction or in other economic sectors.

Friday evening, a tentative deal was struck on a reworked Senate version of the package totaling roughly $827 billion. Details of the new plan were not immediately available, so it was unclear what projects were trimmed.

In Washington, telephone calls were coming in at such a rate Friday afternoon that the Senate network was malfunctioning, transferring calls at random to the wrong offices.

"These calls are coming from all over the country," said Kevin Kelley, spokesman for Collins, "and they're coming in to our offices in Portland as well as Washington."

Snowe's office has received several thousand calls in the past week, many of them from residents of states other than Maine, said Claire Howard, deputy press secretary. The staff has been "inundated, completely overwhelmed," Howard said.

She said many of the calls are in response to a national television ad campaign calling on people to call Snowe and Collins and urge them to support the president's stimulus plan.

The two Maine lawmakers have been at the center of the storm because both have taken a fairly moderate stance on the package. Both had indicated they would vote for the Democratic-sponsored plan if objectionable provisions were removed.

The Senate includes 56 Democrats and two independents who normally vote with them. To avoid procedural moves that would block action, Democrats need 60 votes on a bill.

Underlining the key role that Collins and Snowe are playing in the debate, both were invited to the White House for private meetings with Obama on Wednesday.

Collins, an Appropriations Committee member, and U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., were leading a bipartisan group of about 20 political moderates who were working to scale back the $920 billion stimulus bill to about $800 billion, the figure Obama originally sought.

The group took aim at spending provisions that, in its view, would not provide significant or rapid economic returns and therefore don't belong in a stimulus measure.

Collins has raised concerns about a provision to resod the National Mall in Washington and pay for cyber-security research in homeland security, as well as $900 million for pandemic flu research and $75 million for smoking cessation programs.

Snowe, who has not been part of the group of 20, raised questions about proposals to spend $6 billion for federal building renovations and $1 billion for the Census Bureau.

Snowe serves...