‘Russ Vought will meet his match’: What Murkowski’s potential promotion means for the White House

As president Donald Trump loses one of the GOP’s biggest critics of his administration with Sen. Susan CollinsAfter his defeat, he found himself facing an increasingly powerful Republican opponent, who could constitute a greater handicap for his program.

The senator Lisa Murkowski is next in line to become the first Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee in early January, when Democrats regain control of the House and Senate and Collins, the current chairman, leaves office.

And while the 69-year-old Alaskan won’t wield the gavel, the senator has already vowed to “get back to governing from the middle” and is expected to work with both parties to curb Trump’s moves to wrest purchasing power from Congress.

That could include siding with Democrats and continuing to block the White House budget director. That of Russ Vought efforts to put political appointees in charge of approving grants and preventing Trump from executing another massive rollback of federal dollars next fall — two actions by the Trump administration that Murkowski has denounced.