New committee assignments for Maine’s senators are a sign of their growing stature in national politics and a reason for Maine to expect greater influence over issues in the next congressional session.

Sen. Olympia Snowe leaves Armed Services for Finance, the Senate’s premier committee. The Finance Committee oversees revenue sharing, health programs, Social Security, trade agreements, revenue measures generally and tariffs and quotas. Given the senator’s interest in prescription drug coverage and with Maine’s trade with Canada, the committee is a good fit. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell was the last Mainer to serve on the committee, which this session will include several members of Senate leadership.

The Senate hasn’t agreed on much during the last four years, but it clearly has concluded that it needs to pass a prescription drug benefit. The shape of that benefit will be determined in part in the Finance Committee. Sen. Snowe, along with Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, have produced one of the competing proposals for the benefit. Sen. Snowe’s presence on the committee will ensure that it is given a full hearing. She will also have an opportunity to review Medicare reimbursement levels, which in Maine are among the lowest in the nation.

Sen. Snowe’s departure from Armed Services, particularly from her chairmanship of the Sea Power Subcommittee, would have been a problem for Maine. Several large projects, including the Air Force’s F-22, with parts to be built in Maine, and the Navy’s DD-21, which Bath Iron Works and Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi are competing for, will come up for review and funding in the next couple of years. Fortunately, Sen. Susan Collins will be taking Sen. Snowe’s place on the committee. Subcommittee assignments haven’t been made yet, but it is hoped she can replace her there, as well.

Sen. Collins will be particularly busy because she will remain on the three committees she served on last year, including Governmental Affairs, where she was chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which will be the focus of education issues such as school vouchers and bringing more flexibility to federal school funding. It is an ambitious schedule.

With Maine containing less than one-half of 1 percent of the nation’s population, its clout in Washington depends largely on its senators. The enhanced committee assignments they received this week should help them serve the state more effectively than ever.