Anchorage Assemblyman John Weddleton’s flyer to his district voters in South Anchorage makes the claim that special interest groups hate the fact that he is “nonpartisan.”
Must Read Alaska did the research. The truth is that Weddleton is the candidate for South Anchorage with all the special interest money, while he challenger, Randy Sulte, has just $50 donation from an interest group.
Voters will start marking their ballots as early as Monday, when the voting period starts for the Anchorage municipal elections. Weddleton, who votes consistently with the nine hard-left majority on the Assembly, faces newcomer Sulte, who has never run for office before.
Sulte (pronounced Sult) has brought in more individual contributions from employed people, while Weddleton has made up ground by getting contributions from labor unions and organizations that are surrogates for the Democratic Party, such as the Alaska Center for the Environment.
We rate Weddleton’s claim “four Pinocchios.”
Here’s the contribution breakdown between the two candidates:
Anchorage Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones created and oversees a new and incredibly convoluted election observer qualification process. The winding and overly bureaucratic process to become an election ballot observer is analogous to being swept up in a tornado, rendered unconscious, and deposited in a fairytale land of fictitious election integrity.
So begins our journey along the Barbara Jones, self-titled “yellow brick road” of mystical and illusionary ballot observation. Jones’ yellow brick road refers to the yellow taped pathway in the election center providing boundaries to the public.
Here is the new convoluted process as I understand it:
First step: One must sign up as a member of a specific campaign and attend a mandatory tour of the municipal election center on Ship Creek Ave. However, the city has failed to provide sufficient tour opportunities. This requirement to being an observer is a major bottleneck in the process. A total of 10 tours are offered with only seven of them prior to ballots being mailed out and processed on March 15. Only 10 people are allowed per tour. That’s only 70 possible observer’s maximum by the first day of ballot processing on March 15.
There was plenty of room for more than 10 people on my tour.
More onsite tours are not available from the Muni. All tours are fully booked through March 24, 2022. This is 10 days after many ballots have already been counted.
Second step: Fill out and submit a confidentiality agreement form and an observer registration form tied to each specific campaign. Easy you say? Yes, but it is a prerequisite to obtaining the ruby slippers that allow one to access the sacred and mandatory online training course. A course that was not available, to anyone, until Friday, March 11, just two business days before ballots begin to be processed. As stated by the Clerk on the March 10 tour, “We just published the online training for observers today.” Ballots are mailed out no later than March 15.
Step three: The new online training requires you pass the test and print your certificate. But you are not done yet. You must complete and submit for approval yet another form, the “Observer Training and Tour Agreement Form.” On this form you must proclaim that you have taken the online course and passed it, taken the facility tour, received the 33-page “Election Observers Handbook” and are generally a good person. As one who despises red tape, the phrase “How about a little fire, Scarecrow?” has new found meaning at this point.
Step four: Hurry up and wait. You must stand by for 48 hours to receive your official observation badge from the Great OZ. The tin man may have rusted in place by this time.
Our first batch of observers from one campaign attended the required tours March 10 and 12. These observers from that same campaign have submitted their required paper work in person, to the clerk on March 11 at 9:30 am. There will not be enough time to get their observer credentials because the online training has not been made available in a timely manner.
As of March 12, 2022, the red sand in the witch’s hourglass is passing very quickly. None of those observers have received their Clerk- issued, personalized e-mail invitation to access the required on-line training, take the test and receive their certificate. It was stated by the Clerk that only by her allowance will observers gain access to their required online training.
Even if the Clerk grants access to the online training Monday, March 14, and the required paper work is submitted that same day, there will not be enough time to gain observer status. The Clerk claims to have a 48-hour turnaround time for observer badges to be issued. That would be Wednesday at best. There will be no observers from several campaigns who are properly credentialed and able to observe ballot processing prior to March 16.
Due to the new twisted requirements placed upon potential observers, we are not likely to have approved observers from most campaigns. By the time the first ballots arrive at the Election Center and get processed on March 15, many campaigns will not have been given the opportunity to observe the initial counting.
There will be no diploma for the scarecrow.
In-person voting on election day was never this complicated. It produced quicker results at far less cost. All of the voter verification was immediate as you presented your picture ID and entered the polling location. Voting was far more secure. The integrity of votes was much more possible.
Courageous lions are bravely trying their best to comply with the procedural demands imposed on them in the ballot counting and processing land of OZ. They just want to serve as volunteers and try to ensure some degree of election integrity, but are actually being denied their opportunity.
The new and unnecessarily cumbersome observer registration process is ill-conceived and broken, either by design, incompetence, or both.
Dan Smith is a lifelong Alaskan and Anchorage residentwho writes for Must Read Alaska.
Sunday, the government changes the official time, as it does twice a year, and Alaskans will move their clocks ahead by one hour to be on Daylight Saving Time until Nov. 6, when time moves back an hour to Standard Time. The changeover officially takes place at 2 am Sunday. For those who get up at 7 am, it will feel like 6 am.
Every Spring there are complaints from those who find it hard to make the switch to an hour earlier than usual. They also don’t like that it’s suddenly dark once again when they get up. On the flip side, evenings will feel longer, with sunset an hour later than on Saturday. In Anchorage, civil twilight is ending at about 8:40 pm this weekend, and by March 31, civil twilight will be 9:25 pm.
Under federal law, states are allowed to opt out of Daylight Saving Time and remain on Standard Time, but are not allowed to remain on Daylight Time. Alaska lawmakers occasionally have tried to maintain a time standard, but bills have failed to progress.
In 2021, Rep. Daniel Ortiz of Ketchikan introduced House Bill 31 to recognize daylight saving year-round if Congress makes the move by 2030.
In 2021, lawmakers in Congress once again proposed staying on Daylight Saving Time year-round with the Sunshine Protection Act. It was sponsored by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Florida Congressman Vern Buchanan. Rubio has long advocating that Congress “lock the clock” and filed legislation for the last four years to end the twice-annual changing of time.
“We Americans are about to suffer another ridiculous time change as we spring forward this weekend,” Rubio said in a video. “Switching in and out of Daylight Saving Time is outdated, and is only a source of annoyance and confusion.” He added it is time to “put all this stupidity behind us.”
Several states are proposing moving to Daylight Saving Time permanently, including:
In 2021, Alabama passed an act that would put the state on permanent Daylight Saving Time if the Sunshine Protection Act passes.
Arizona and Hawaii do not observe Daylight saving time. Arizona observes Mountain Standard Time all year.
The Navajo Nation in the northeastern Arizona observes Daylight Saving Time, putting it an hour off the rest of the state for part of the year.
In 2018, Florida was the first state to pass a resolution to observe Daylight Saving Time year-round, if federal law changes.
In 2021, Georgia passed a permanent Daylight Saving Time law, pending changes in federal law.
Idaho has two time zones; the southern part of the state is in Mountain Time, and the panhandle in the north is in Pacific Time. In 2020, the Legislature and governor passed a law that says if Washington state makes Daylight Saving Time permanent, Northern Idaho will do so as well.
Oregon also has two time zones. A state law passed in 2019 would keep Oregon on Daylight Saving Time if Congress ever acts. But Malheur County in Eastern Oregon is on Mountain Time, and would be the only part of the state not moving to DST.
Washington state approved the change to permanent Daylight Savings Time in 2019, pending on congressional action.
Wyoming’s legislature decided 2020 to move to Daylight Saving Time, if approved by Congress — and also if nearby states of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah also made the move.
Fewer than 40 percent of the countries in the world move to Daylight Saving Time, and not all countries that do change their clocks do so on the same day. Where it makes the most difference is with those further from the Equator, while those living close to the Equator might not notice much change.
ConocoPhillips says it has mobilized numerous resources to respond to a natural gas release at the CD1 pad at its Alpine Central Facility. There is no interruption of natural gas being supplied to the Native community of Nuiqsut, population 500, “and we do not anticipate the need for a relocation of Nuiqsut residents based on current data,” the company said.
Ongoing air monitoring is in place both at the facility and in Nuiqsut, the company said. A third party contracted by ConocoPhillips has been collecting monthly air samples in the Nuiqsut community since 2014; the most recent results obtained have not shown anything outside normal conditions. No natural gas has been detected outside of the CD1 area. ConocoPhillips has taken the additional step to install more continuous air monitors in Nuiqsut, including daily sampling of volatile organic compounds.
Essential personnel remain on-site, supported by subject matter experts, and the company said it is in regular contact with regulatory agencies and community leaders. “Our primary focus is protecting our workforce and the community,” ConocoPhillips said Friday.
The Colville River Unit, also known as Alpine, is located in the Colville River Delta on Alaska’s western North Slope, 34 miles west of the Kuparuk River Field and eight miles north of the Inupiat village of Nuiqsut. Kuparuk is one of the largest conventional onshore oil fields developed in North America in the past 25 years. Alpine is considered a model for future oil developments as directional drilling and other innovations minimize its environmental footprint. In 2020, net crude oil production was 25,000 of oil equivalent per day.
A bill that was intended to help the wedding industry in Alaska by removing the two witness requirement turned into something else with Amendment 9 on Thursday — raising the minimum age for marriage in Alaska to 16. The amendment passed the House on a vote of 33-3, with four excused.
Rep. Sara Rasmussen offered the hastily drawn up amendment to Rep. Matt Claman’s original bill. The amendment was co-sponsored by Reps. Harriet Drummond, Liz Snyder, Ivy Spohnholz, and Sarah Vance.
Three who voted against the bill were from the Mat-Su Borough — Reps. David Eastman, Chris Kurka, and DeLena Johnson.
Currently, younger teens can get married if they either have their parents’ permission or ask a judge to sign off on it. Alaska law currently does not permit those under the age of 16 to marry without court permission.
“Persons ages 16 and 17 must submit a parental consent form signed by both parents with their application. If one parent is sole custodian of the minor, a divorce decree stating custody rights or a death certificate must be presented as well. Alaska law does not permit those under the age of 16 to marry without a court order,” state law reads.
Instances of teens marrying at age 14-16 are rare. But for a teen who is pregnant, marriage may be the best of few options, especially if a teen does not want to have an abortion and wants the baby to be baptized in some churches. Amendment 9 strips a judge’s ability to make that decision about whether marriage is in the best interest of the individual.
Former Sen. Berta Gardner, who represented midtown Anchorage for many years, had tried to get the marriage age raised while she was in office, to no avail.
Rep. Claman has been offering various wedding legislation for years, such as making legislators automatically eligible to be officiants at weddings without having to register and pay a fee. His bill this year, HB 62, cheapens the marriage covenant by eliminating the two-witness requirement, and it gave Rasmussen the opportunity to hijack the bill’s original intent. Notably, the two are paired against each other in the same district, under the new political maps approved by the Alaska Redistricting Board. Claman voted in favor of the Rasmussen amendment.
Rep. DeLena Johnson of Palmer said she opposed it because this was committee work that was being done on the floor. “I don’t typically vote yes on those kinds of amendments,” she said.
Rasmussen had rewritten her amendment three times and then, after the bill was delayed, got help from the Legislature’s legal staff in crafting the amendment properly, legislators noted.
Johnson has other concerns, too. “There are cultures in Alaska that have been here for long time that are not all the same and some have a history of having young marriages. My own mother married at 14 and lived a long and productive life with my father,” she said. “I don’t believe that people have had a chance to think about affects on other cultures because we were, in fact, doing committee work on the floor.”
Old Believers in Alaska, a group of Russian-heritage, very conservative Christians, may marry earlier than people in other cultures. It’s not uncommon for them to marry at age 15.
In recent generations, people marrying at 16 was not uncommon, although 21-22 was more common. Today the average age of marriage is between 25-20 years old. In Alaska, the average age for women to marry is 26, while the average age for men to marry is 28.7.
All over the country, the rate of marriages is dropping. “Since the start of the 21st century, the marriage rate has declined from more than eight marriages per 1,000 down to six marriages per 1,000 population in 2019. That marriage rate is the lowest level since the U.S. government began keeping marriage records for the country in 1867,” according to reporting by The Hill.
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy has asked the Legislature to suspend the State motor fuel taxes until next June, in an amendment to House Bill 104.
“With rising inflation eroding the financial bedrock of Alaskan homes and businesses, something must be done to alleviate the economic hardship facing our state,” wrote Dunleavy in his letter to the House.
Under State statute, a tax of .08 cents a gallon is levied on all motor fuel sold or transferred within the state, and smaller taxes are levied on fuel for aviation and watercraft.
Oil prices have skyrocketed since Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine began more than two weeks ago and have destabilized global energy markets, which in turn have increased oil tax revenues for the State.
“The misery wrought from these worldwide events is, indirectly, propelling the revenues to Alaska’s State government,” Dunleavy wrote. “Oil prices are at record levels, and, unlike the high oil price environment of 2007-2014, this climb is occurring with concurrent increases in all costs of living. The transfer of wealth from Alaskans to the State Treasury must have some equitability restored to it.”
“This amendment would immediately suspend the collection of tax on motor and marine fuels, aviation gas, and aviation jet fuel until June 30, 2023. This action, if approved by the Legislature, would bring direct tax relief at the gas pump for Alaskan families and businesses and help contain the costs of goods shipped within the state,” he wrote.
Some of the proceeds from the fuel tax are for State Dept. of Transportation expenditures or matches for federal highway funds for maintenance of highways, construction of highways and ferries.
Last year, the Alaska House Transportation Committee state voted to double the 8-cent fuel tax to 16 cents, and to also increase the .95-cent surcharge that is added to the tax.
We all as parents share a common, yet strikingly dominant and emotional, sentiment. It is one of our most true imperatives. Through the centuries of civilization, every parent’s goal was a singular commitment to ensure their children had better opportunities for their future than they had. When this happened, what resulted was not just a better life, but a better society.
In 1931, Albert Jay Nock, “The Theory of Education in the United States,” in his lectures to University of Virginia students, stated, “This sentiment, I say, served as a quickening spirit, not an enlightening spirit. Its ministrations moved us to the construction, by no means deliberate but quite at haphazard, of an educational theory which may be decomposed into three basic ideas or principles. The first idea was that of equality; the second, that of democracy; and the third idea was that the one great assurance of good public order and honest government lay in a literate citizenry.”
Nock continued, “I need not remind you of Mr. Jefferson’s passionate faith in this third idea, and his insistence upon it in season and out of season. It was in his day a speculative idea, which commanded quite wide consent among thoughtful persons, but which the subsequent test of practice has rather tended to explode. These three ideas are the fundamental ones in our theory of education today, precisely as they were in Mr. Jefferson’s time. They remain unmodified, and even, as I said, unexamined; they are taken as axiomatic, and all the mechanism of our system, the whole of our pedagogical practice from the primary school to the university, is built upon them.”
What happened to Thomas Jefferson’s American theory of education that produced in the 19th and early 20th centuries some of our greatest minds?
Nock saw in 1931 that socialism happened.
In the new decades of the 20th Century, socialism became the government manipulated arbitrary division and redistribution of the nation’s wealth and industry among the American people through tax doctrine. This tax doctrine (income and property) transformed our population’s behavioral fabric by slow marination. It did not offer option, opt-out nor constraint. Over time, this further instilled ignorance and misinformation regarding our constitutional republic. It produced an overwhelming popular misunderstanding resulting in self-interested government largess, especially in government education.
The examination of the first principle, equality, in our government educational system metamorphized from the founder of the University of Virginia’s espousal of performance basis to an artificial mechanism where every student gets a trophy.
What of the second principle, democracy? Our education system is intended to be democratic. The definition of democracy was transformed.
As with the current corruption of the philosophically sound doctrine of equality, Nock saw the transformation of the definition of democracy as “something even stranger and more interesting, a perversion upon a perversion.”
Today, the public policy of regulating and influencing behavior is critical for governments. Instead of the bottom-up goal of our constitutional republic starting with individual rights through a local government process leading to better freedoms, government has invented top-down restraints on every facet of the public’s lives. Governments employ several tools such as legislation, sanctions, regulations, taxes, and subsidies to change and modify public behavior.
Government policy should mean actual resource allocation presented by projects and programs designed to respond to actual problems and challenges requiring government action for their solution, instead of the knee jerk reactions to projected and unproven problems and challenges we see our government, local, state, and federal, acting with blind imminence and our captive participation.
The birth of our nation was founded upon the right of individual self-expression in politics. At the core of this 18th Century political theory was that those who vote, rule. The vote was considered the best appliance to actualize this right of individual self-expression. Through voting, democracy becomes the outcome of counting ballots. This democratically determines power and control over the political apparatus. Democracy was intended political status.
However, we live in a constitutional republic. Over time and the confusion of terms, our behavior changed to accepting that fact that everybody voted democratically, hence we live in a democracy.
Moreover, because of this confusion of terms, today’s democracy has shifted from purely political convention to a collective controlling economics. Our current perception of democracy demonstrates how the management and administration of government properties affects public behavior.
It is not the democracy of political outcome. Like the common areas of a condominium and the cost to operate them, this became the purpose of today’s democracy. A bond issue to build a new government school or a candidate for government office to better control ideological intent are regarded as our obligation, instead of our nation’s original focus of lesser government and our obligation to preserve that limited government for our future generations. The democracy of economics is now the goal of the outcome of counting ballots, not the democracy of politics. With a perversion of the Golden Rule, those, who have the gold, rule.
The opposite of republicanism is monarchy, but monarchy is not the opposite of democracy. The opposite of democracy is absolutism, in other words, tyranny. Tyranny can control a republican regime just like any other. Because everybody voted, our constitutional republic is now termed a democracy. We see this as normalcy. The evidence of this confusion is a modern-day social predicate.
Thus, democracy is not a matter of an extension of the ballot. It is not a matter of the individual citizen’s right of self-expression in politics. It is no longer the political philosophy of the eighteenth century regarded nor intended.
Today’s democracy is not political status. It is the economic adjusting of government property by dissolving the distribution of ownership funneled into a collective political class, the elected and the non-elected bureaucracy, using tax and regulatory restraints on the country’s voters. This collective political class is obliged through the fundamentals of the new definition of democracy not to bear the responsibility nor accountability of ownership, only to produce outrage and crises for the purposes of maintaining the power center of government. Socialism avoids individual responsibility and accountability, which are the foundation of liberty, and promotes the increases and controls using top-down government economic policy.
If elected government leaders cannot be responsible and accountable for their actions over and above the election process and the policies created, then they avoid any consequence for results. With time their lack of results is forgotten, leading to a general disorientation and planned confusion.
Crises-induce resentment and outrage as well as fear and discontent. Today’s democracy is transformative by intent to include resentment and outrage. Yesterday’s democracy is neither remembered nor practiced. Those who dedicated their lives to figuring out the human quagmire of civilized designs are now forgotten or ignored.
The result at present and as Nock notes in 1931, “As the popular idea of equality postulates that in the realm of the spirit everybody is able to enjoy everything that anybody can enjoy, so the popular idea of democracy postulates that there shall be nothing worth enjoying for anybody to enjoy that everybody may not enjoy; and a contrary view is at once exposed to all the evils of a dogged, unintelligent, invincibly suspicious resentment.”
When looking at our own state constitution, how would the Alaska constitutional delegates have reacted to the founder of American education theory?
Michael Tavoliero is a realtor in Eagle River, is active in the Alaska Republican Party and past chair of Eaglexit.Part III of this series will be posted shortly.
President Joe Biden issued an executive order on Friday that halts imports of Russian seafood, vodka, and non-industrial-use diamonds. The White House statement says this will include more than $1 billion in revenues to Russian entities.
Biden’s order also stops U.S. exports of luxury items to anyone in Russia. Other leaders from G7 nations of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the European Union will also announce similar actions, the White House said.
“These actions will collectively ramp up pressure on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and build on the unprecedented package of economic sanctions and export controls the United States and over 30 countries have already imposed on Russia. Today, the ruble is trading at its weakest level ever and is worth less than a penny; the Russian stock market is closed for the longest time in history; the Russian government’s credit rating has been downgraded to ‘junk’ status, and we’re seeing a mass exodus from Russia by the private sector – the result of our historic, multilateral coordination and commitment to ensure that Putin’s war of choice is a strategic failure. Russia has now become a global economic and financial pariah,” Biden’s statement said.
Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan has been pressuring the White House over the course of three administrations — Obama, Trump, and Biden — to enact such a ban on Russian seafood imports.
“Although this unfair and non-reciprocal seafood trade relationship between the United States and the Russian Federation has been harming our fishermen for far too long, I appreciate that the Biden administration has recognized the need to rectify it, and support the thousands of hard-working fishermen across the country and in Alaska,” Sullivan said. “Just in the past few weeks, I’ve had detailed discussions with President Biden’s National Security Advisor and U.S. Trade Representative on this important topic—including just yesterday.”
According to the White House, the sanctions include:
Revoking Russia’s Most-Favored Nation Status. President Biden will work closely with Congress to deny Russia the benefits of its WTO membership and ensure that Russian imports do not receive most favored nation treatment in our economy. The United States Congress has demonstrated bipartisan leadership to revoke Permanent Normal Trade Relations for Russia, and President Biden looks forward to signing a bill into law. Together with similar actions by the G7, following our respective national processes, this collective action by more than half of the global economy will deliver another serious economic blow to Russia.
Denying Borrowing Privileges at Multilateral Financial Institutions. The G7 Leaders will agree to ensure Russia cannot obtain financing from the leading multilateral financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Russia cannot grossly violate international law and expect to benefit from being part of the international economic order.
Full blocking Sanctions on Additional Russian Elites and their Family Members. This includes Yuri Kovalchuk, executives of banks we have sanctioned, and Duma members who sponsored legislation to recognize the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” and “Luhansk People’s Republic.” This action will follow up on multiple efforts, along with those of our allies and partners, to target Russian elites and their family members who are profiting from this war of choice, and cuts them off from the U.S. financial system, freezes any assets they hold in the United States and blocks their travel to the United States. We will work through the international task force announced on February 26 to pursue the ill-gotten gains of these elites.
Banning Export of Luxury Goods to Russia. President Biden will sign an Executive Order (E.O) that will end the exportation of luxury items to any person located in the Russian Federation. This will ensure that U.S. persons are not providing luxury items, such as high end-watches, luxury vehicles, high-end apparel, high-end alcohol, jewelry, and other goods frequently purchased by Russian elites. The U.S. export value of the products covered by today’s luxury goods restrictions is nearly $550 million per year. The elites who sustain Putin’s war machine should no longer be able to reap the gains of this system and squander the resources of the Russian people.
Banning U.S. Import of Goods from Several Signature Sectors of Russia’s Economy. President Biden’s E.O. will also prohibit the import of goods from several signature sectors of Russia’s economy – including seafood, spirits/vodka, and non-industrial diamonds. This will deny Russia more than $1 billion in export revenues and ensure U.S. citizens are not underwriting Putin’s war. The United States retains the authority to impose additional import bans as appropriate.
New guidance by the Department of Treasury to Thwart Sanctions Evasion, including through Virtual Currency. The Department of the Treasury, through new guidance, will continue to make clear that Treasury’s expansive actions against Russia require all U.S. persons to comply with sanctions regulations regardless of whether a transaction is denominated in traditional fiat currency or virtual currency. Treasury is closely monitoring any efforts to circumvent or violate Russia-related sanctions, including through the use of virtual currency, and is committed to using its broad enforcement authorities to act against violations and to promote compliance.
Creating the Authority to Ban New Investment in Any Sector of the Russian Federation Economy. President Biden has already banned new U.S. investments in the Russian energy sector. This E.O. will establish the legal authority for future investment restrictions in any sector of the Russian economy, as may be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, by a United States person.
On Feb. 21, Biden issued an earlier executive order with numerous economic sanctions against Russia, which has since stepped up its attacks on Ukraine. That prior order is at this link.
Photo: On June 16, 2021, President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Geneva to discuss pressing issues including strategic stability and arms control, ransomware attacks, human rights, and Ukraine. Photo by Russian government.
Hours after the U.S. House passed a $1.5 trillion spending bill, the U.S. Senate also passed the bill. But at 2,700 pages, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan said it was too long of a bill, with less than a day for senators to review, and he voted no. Sullivan is known for carefully reading bills that he votes on.
“There’s a lot in this bill that I support and have been strongly advocating for, including items I authored, like the Choose Respect Act and a section to implement the electronic delivery of protective orders, both contained in the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) title of the bill. This bill also contains some important Alaska priorities and infrastructure projects that I strongly support. The bill’s robust funding for our military and national defense is an important achievement—something I advocated for strongly—particularly when compared to the president’s budget request that cut defense spending. I have also consistently supported increased lethal and humanitarian aid for the Ukrainian people. In fact, I am an original cosponsor of a standalone bill to provide this critically-needed support for Ukraine,” Sullivan said.
“However, this is a more than $1.5 trillion dollar bill, negotiated and agreed to only by House and Senate leadership, and their staff. It is 2,700 pages long, with thousands more pages in supporting documentation, and senators were provided a little over one day to review and analyze it. Therefore, I could not support such a bill on which my staff and I were unable to do our appropriate and necessary due diligence. We need to fix our broken budget process that does not serve our military, government or the American people well.”
Sullivan departed ways with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted in favor of the package, and Congressman Don Young, who was one of 29 Republicans in the House who voted in favor of the spending package.
