Susan Collins Tells Reporters She Is ‘Concerned’ About Elon Musk’s Power Over Federal Spending

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Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday that she was concerned about Elon Musk unilaterally gutting USAID and seizing control over the Treasury Department’s payment system.

“There’s no doubt that the president appears to have empowered Elon Musk far beyond what I think is appropriate,” Collins told reporters. “I think a lot of it is going to end up in court.”

“I am concerned if the Trump administration is clawing back money that has been specifically appropriated for a particular purpose,” she added. Collins, the last Republican senator from New England, is also the chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and has oversight over the spending that Musk has now seemed to wrangle control over.

Politico reported on Collins’s last interaction with Musk while covering her comments, noting:

After the only known one-on-one meeting between Collins and Musk on Capitol Hill late last year, she had said she was “very impressed with his energy and dedication.”

Since that time, Musk has helped orchestrate a de facto shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development and gained access to the Treasury Department system that controls trillions of dollars in federal payments.

Collins also repeated her unease Wednesday that the White House is undermining Congressional spending power.

Collins also slammed Trump’s freeze of all federal grants last week, which followed a memo from the Office of Management and Budget. The memo was later rescinded after an outcry and following Medicaid portals across the country being shuttered.

Collins slammed the move as “far too sweeping” and said it would have “an adverse effect on the delivery of services and programs.” However, Collins still plans to vote to confirm Russ Vought, the Project 2025 contributor, to lead the OMB – as he did at the end of Trump’s last administration.

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