Republican Main Street Partnership shines spotlights on Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republican Main Street Partnership, the largest organization of elected centrists, is pleased to spotlight Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).
“Olympia Snowe has long been a leader for centrist Republicans in Washington,” said former U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), President and CEO of Main Street.  “Sen. Snowe’s commitment to delivering results to her constituents, and her pragmatic approach to government, have made her one of the most effective members of the U.S. Senate, regardless of which party controls the Congress.”
“It is clear that Sen. Snowe takes public service and the duty of governing seriously.  Main Street is lucky to count Sen. Snowe amongst its members and the State of Maine is fortunate to have her as their voice in Washington,” concluded Davis.
With her election in 1994, Olympia J. Snowe became only the second woman senator in history to represent Maine, following the late Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, who served from 1949-1973. In November 2006, she was re-elected to a third six-year term in the United States Senate with 74 percent of the vote.
Before her election to the Senate, Olympia Snowe represented Maine’s Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for 16 years. Sen. Snowe is only the fourth woman in history to be elected to both houses of Congress and the first woman in American history to serve in both houses of a state legislature and both houses of Congress. Sen. Snowe has won more federal elections in Maine than any other person since World War II.
Sen. Snowe has worked extensively on a number of issues, such as budget and fiscal responsibility; education, including student financial aid and education technology; national security; women’s issues; health care, including prescription drug coverage for Medicare recipients; welfare reform; oceans and fisheries issues; and campaign finance reform.
As a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Snowe has long been engaged in the tax and finance aspects of health care as well as the federal entitlements and programs upon which one and three Americans rely. A longtime champion of health care reform, Sen. Snowe will play a leading role in crafting bipartisan legislation to overhaul the American health care system.
Most recently, Sen. Snowe successfully fought to include $34 billion for adoption of Health Information Technology by health care providers in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Importantly, the Snowe provision will result in an eventual $12 billion in savings while creating an additional 40,000 jobs that will endure.
Currently, Sen. Snowe is working with Chairman Baucus and Ranking Member Grassley to produce a reform bill that will spend health care dollars more effectively and ensure every American has access to quality and affordable health care. The Committee expects to produce legislation by June 2009.
Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee ranking member Olympia Snowe is paving the way to ensure that the engines of our economy – American small businesses – have access to the tools and resources they need to thrive – especially during troubling economic times.
To help increase access to critical capital, Ranking Member Snowe co-authored a provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to create a Business Stabilization Program that will allow banks to provide loans up to $35,000 for six months to viable small businesses experiencing immediate financial hardship. In addition,
Sen. Snowe helped to secure $375 million in the recently enacted stimulus bill to allow for temporary waivers or reductions in the fees the SBA charges to lenders and borrowers in the SBA’s 504 loan program and for borrowers in the SBA’s 7(a) program. Furthermore, the stimulus included a provision that Ranking Member Snowe supported to, on a case by case basis, temporarily increase the SBA’s 7(a) guarantee level, providing a higher level of protection for risk-weary small business lenders who have tightened their lending standards considerably in the wake of the credit crunch.
As the 111th Congress continues to move forward, Ranking Member Snowe will continue to work with her colleagues to advance aggressive policies that will thaw frozen credit markets, reduce lending fees for smaller firms and increase bank liquidity to help ensure that small firms can have continued access to credit.