Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, suggested during a recent interview with Politico that President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut wasteful spending with the help of Elon Musk could violate the Constitution.

Sen. Collins said during the interview, released on Wednesday, that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed by Musk and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) are violating the constitutionally mandated separation of powers by trying to cut spending already approved by Congress.

“I think it’s pretty clear that this violates Article One of the Constitution,” said Collins.

She warned that the Trump Administration, already facing various legal troubles for a variety of executive actions, including attempts to end birthright citizenship for illegal aliens, could face additional lawsuits for attempted spending cuts.

“A lot of these issues are going to end up in court,” said Collins.

She argued that President Trump’s executive actions to cut federal spending violate the Budget Control and Impoundment Act of 1974, which gives Congress the authority to ignore presidential requests to stop funding for federal programs.

According to Politico, OMB Director Russ Vought has argued that the act is unconstitutional and that congressional approval is not required for the president to halt federal spending programs.

As Congress considers how to pass a spending bill before the March 14 funding deadline, Maine’s senior senator complained to the outlet that Musk has not met with her despite her powerful position in Appropriations.

Collins has been critical in the past of Trump and many aspects of his agenda, voted to impeach him in 2021 and is widely considered a moderate Republican willing to cross the aisle and vote with Democrats on various issues.

She was considered a potentially vital swing vote in Trump’s most controversial cabinet appointments’ confirmation hearings. She ultimately opposed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, while supporting Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

On Thursday, she also announced she would not support Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel to be director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), disappointing many who have sought reform of a bureau seen as pursuing politicized investigations. In a statement Collins couched her decision as motivated by the Department of Justice’s recent decisions she termed also partisan, albeit in a different direction, than the DOJ had been seen as slanting over the past eight years.

“The nomination of Kash Patel to serve as Director of the FBI comes to the Senate against the backdrop of recent personnel actions at the Department of Justice, including the resignations of several career federal prosecutors who felt they were being instructed to act in a manner inconsistent with their ethical obligations,” she said, referencing the Department’s recent orders to drop the prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

To confirm Patel, the White House can afford only three Republican defections.