Susan Collins of Maine is locked in one of the toughest campaigns an incumbent Republican senator faces this cycle. Her campaign pitch to her constituents leans, in large part, on her seniority and status atop the Senate Appropriations Committee. Like many of her GOP colleagues, President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies have proved more of a hinderance than help to Collins’ message, and the latest, likely illegal move out of the White House undercuts her appeal even further.

Thursday marks the beginning of a new fiscal year in Washington and the expiration of the previous year’s federal funding. The federal government will shut down unless Congress has passed 12 annual appropriations bills ahead of this turning point. That fate was averted thanks to a short-term funding bill passed in September locking in current spending levels until December. As the lead Republican appropriator in the Senate, Collins was crucial in making sure that the federal government wasn’t shut down during campaign season, while budget negotiators wait to see how the dust settles after the election.

The executive branch’s various departments and agencies are required to spend appropriated funds in the ways that Congress’ funding laws instruct them. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought disagrees. For the last two years, he’s refused to follow the legislative branch’s clear directions — appointing himself the final arbiter on which programs are worthy of funding. In the process, Vought has compiled a sizable bag of tricks to dodge the Impound Control Act, a law that prevents the White House from holding back, or “impounding,” funds at the president’s discretion.

Last Friday evening, Vought sent Congress notification that the administration would be cancelling almost $1 billion in spending lawmakers had approved.

“Most of the cuts are focused on Health and Human Services programs that serve refugees and unaccompanied minors accused of being in the country illegally,” The Associated Press reported, along with programs at the departments of Education, Justice, and Housing and Urban Development.

The notification ostensibly doubled as a request to lawmakers to consider rescinding that spending. The Impound Control Act allows the president to temporarily hold those funds while Congress debates the proposed rescission. But given the timing of Vought’s message, the window for Congress to sign off on the cuts extended past the end of the fiscal year. By his reasoning, this so-called “pocket rescission” means that the money has effectively evaporated into the ether.

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The White House pulled the same maneuver last year, much to the consternation of appropriators and the Government Accountability Office, which provides congressional oversight of the executive branch. In a letter sent Tuesday to House and Senate leadership, the GAO again confirmed that the White House withholding funds is illegal, no matter the timing.

“Any withholding of appropriated funds beyond their date of expiration, regardless of size, subverts both the constitutional process for enacting federal law and Congress’ constitutional power of the purse,” wrote Edda Emmanuelli Perez, the GAO’s general counsel. “The President may not force the expiration of budget authority Congress has already enacted and did not rescind.”

To her credit, Collins immediately came out against the White House’s move.

“Not only is the delay itself an impoundment that was not reported to Congress, but also it is a usurpation of Congress’s appropriations powers,” Collins said in a statement. OMB “does not get to decide which programs are worth funding,” she continued, adding that she means to “work with my colleagues to address these illegal actions.”

There’s clear self-interest baked into the senator’s outrage. As The Washington Sun’s Al Weaver recently noted when reporting in Maine, “check out a sampling of her ads or campaign appearances and the message is clear: She’s responsible for securing money to rebuild a fire station or other local projects that generate jobs.”

The subtext: get rid of me, potentially lose out on millions of dollars in federal project funding.

It’s the kind of transactional politicking that once made a seat on Appropriations one of the most coveted committee assignments in Congress. Collins is also fighting against the general tide of dismay at Trump’s policies, most recently bolstered by his trade war with Canada. This has forced her to find ways to place distance between herself and the White House, and leaning on the jobs and money she brings to Maine as a legislator is a key part of that strategy.

But a recent ProPublica investigation has tarnished the luster on Collins’ record. The report centered on an FBI investigation into potentially illegal campaign donations from a government contractor that vanished under Trump’s purge of the Justice Department. (The FBI told ProPublica in a statement that it “ultimately found nothing implicating Senator Collins or Senator Collins’ campaign.” A staffer for Collins told ProPublica via email the senator’s office participated in the FBI’s probe, and it “‘vigorously denies allegations of bribery and pay-for-play made by Kao, calling his claims ‘outlandish.’”)

Even without the ProPublica report, Trump systematically wearing away at congressional prerogatives has made Collins’ re-election bid much more difficult. There’s little point in highlighting the power of the purse to voters when the White House is working overtime to seize the strings for itself. She likewise can’t ensure federal dollars flow to Maine if the White House can turn around and claw back any spending that doesn’t fit its ideology.

If Collins does win, she would need to work to convince her fellow Republicans that this power is one worth fighting tooth and nail to protect. Explicit penalties for administration staffers like Vought who defy Congress and withhold funds should be attached to every spending bill that comes from her committee. Unfortunately, that seems unlikely when so many of her colleagues are content to let the White House override their wishes with impunity.

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