Collins, King Announce $4.6 Million Federal Investment Supporting Conservation Efforts in Western Maine Mountains

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King announced a $4.6 million investment from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that will support conservation efforts in Maine’s Western Mountains. The Senators, along with Congressman Bruce Poliquin, wrote a letter in support of the project which will help private landowner efforts to bolster fish and wildlife habitats in western Maine between the White Mountains in New Hampshire and Moosehead Lake.

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Collins, King, Poliquin Receive Response to Letter to President on Possible National Monument Designation in Maine North Woods

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King and Representative Bruce Poliquin have received a response from Jonathan B. Jarvis, the Director of the National Park Service, to the letter they sent to President Barack Obama regarding the possible designation of land in the Katahdin region as a national monument last November.
     

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Senators Collins, Leahy Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Stop Gun Trafficking, which Contributes to Maine’s Heroin Crisis

U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced the Stop Illegal Trafficking in Firearms Act, legislation that aims to strengthen federal law to make it easier for law enforcement to prosecute gun traffickers.  Traffickers target individuals who can lawfully purchase firearms and then use those weapons in other crimes.  This practice contributes to Maine’s heroin crisis, since criminals will often give individuals drugs in exchange for firearms.

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Collins, Shaheen Lead Letter Calling for Accountability in UN Peacekeeping Forces Following Multiple Reports of Sexual Abuse

(Washington, DC)—Today, U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) led a bipartisan letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Samantha Power calling for action and accountability following multiple reports of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeeping forces in the Central African Republic.

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ICYMI - NYT: “Drug Traffickers Turn to New Type of Courier: Seniors”

In what law enforcement officials describe as a new front in international smuggling, global traffickers and cartels are increasingly turning to a new source for couriers to smuggle drugs across international borders: vulnerable American older adults.

The traffickers deceive seniors with promises of prizes or relationships, setting them up to unknowingly try to carry luggage filled with cocaine or other items through customs, hoping they will not arouse suspicions. Such cases have been seen in nearly a dozen foreign countries, officials say. Details of the smuggling and a counteroperation that officials called Operation Cocoon were disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security during a hearing on Wednesday before the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

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Senator Collins leads Bipartisan Letter to Secretary Burwell Highlighting Possible Contributing Factor to Opioid Crisis

Washington, D.C.—U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) led a bipartisan delegation of 26 U.S. Senators in writing to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, regarding one possible contributing factor to the opioid crisis and heroin epidemic facing our country. The letter urges HHS to conduct a robust examination of whether or not certain questions on patient satisfaction surveys may inadvertently encourage treatment with opioid pain relievers, contributing to the vast supply of prescription opioids currently in circulation in our country. According to the CDC, health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers in 2012, enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills.

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