By SEN. DAN SULLIVAN
In my address to the Alaska Legislature last week, I described two historic, competing visions for our state.
The first, which I strongly agree with, envisions unlocking the wealth of Alaska to create sustainable, private sector economic growth and good-paying jobs. The other sees our state more as a territory run by an absent federal landlord who protects us and occasionally gives us scraps from the wealth of America’s table to keep us happy.
This arrogant federal landlord view of Alaska reached its zenith under President Joe Biden with his “Last Frontier Lock-Up”—an unprecedented 70 executive orders and actions exclusively focused on Alaska and shutting down our private sector economy, harming working families, and killing hundreds if not thousands of jobs.
Thankfully, it is a new day in Alaska. With the stroke of a pen, on his first day in office, President Donald Trump started to undo so much of the harmful Biden Lock-Up.
President Trump’s day-one, Alaska-specific executive order (EO) revived the optimistic vision for our state and sent an unmistakable message that unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary resources and creating Alaskan jobs is one of his administration’s top priorities.
This once-in-a-generation EO and the strong support we have from the new administration led to a very good week for Alaska.
Literally as I was delivering my speech, the Department of the Interior released another order—which implements key elements of President Trump’s day-one EO—to lift a decades-obsolete Public Land Order, PLO 5150, long used to hinder major resource projects in our state. This order not only puts ANWR and NPR-A back on the table for responsible development, it also enables the State of Alaska to select the lands along the Dalton Highway Corridor for conveyance, including the land beneath the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. This is huge.
Last week, we also saw important progress behind our massive Alaska LNG Project, which now has the full-throated backing of the President of the United States and his entire cabinet. On Thursday, Taiwan’s state-owned oil and gas company, CPC, signed a letter of intent with the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation to purchase large amounts of clean burning Alaska natural gas. My team and I have worked relentlessly with Governor Dunleavy and his team to achieve this momentum and support.
Finally, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources just recently announced its official North Slope oil production forecast, which estimates an official forecast of nearly 657,000 barrels per day and a high forecast of 931,000 barrels a day by 2034. The renaissance on Alaska’s North Slope continues.
Needless to say, it was a very good week for Alaska.
At the same time, National Democrats and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer recently experienced perhaps their worst week in years. Since the passage of the continuing resolution (CR) in the Senate, they have been at each other’s throats. Many House and Senate Democrats have been calling for Schumer to step down as Minority Leader. He even had to cancel his book tour because of security concerns. Was it because of right-wing agitators? No, these threats came from far-left radicals, if you can believe that.
The Democrats have spent the whole week attacking the Senate Minority Leader, which gives him much less time to continue damaging our country—and, particularly, Alaska. Chuck Schumer is almost certainly the most anti-Alaska Senate Leader in U.S. history, with a particular disdain for Alaska Native people.
But none of this would’ve happened—good week for Republicans; chaos for the National Democrats—had the Senate passed ANY amendments to the CR we were debating on the floor, which ended up being the source of Schumer’s very bad week. In advancing the CR, Republicans showed unusual and critically-important unity. The House passed the CR with only one Democrat supporting it and only one Republican defector.
Most Beltway prognosticators—and Chuck Schumer—didn’t believe House Speaker Mike Johnson could pull off this daunting task. But he did.
When that bill came over to the Senate, Chuck Schumer had one major goal in mind: bring amendments to the floor and get them to pass. Why? ANY amendment that passed would’ve required the CR to go back to the House.
The federal government would have shut down, because the House had already recessed and left town; President Trump and congressional Republicans would’ve been blamed; and the Democrats’ complete disarray and civil war would not have happened over the past week.
So, Senate Republicans’ goal was to make sure no amendments were attached to the CR. That included an amendment offered by Senator Rand Paul to codify cuts made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in conjunction with DOGE, to USAID—America’s foreign aid agency.
I agreed with the substance of the Paul amendment. We need to scrutinize waste that clearly exists in our foreign aid programs, and properly put USAID under the clear authority and oversight of the State Department. But the timing of this amendment would’ve been a disaster had it passed. It would have let Schumer off the hook, and put the blame and focus for a federal government shutdown on President Trump and House and Senate Republicans.
Thankfully, the amendment didn’t pass. Some have criticized me for voting against it, but the whole point of my vote had nothing to do with the policy, but everything to do with the practical consequences of it actually passing.
If the CR had not passed, not only would the government have shut down, this would have blocked the largest pay raise for junior enlisted troops in decades, major funding for the US Coast Guard, and other important priorities for Alaska.
As Alaska’s Senator, I am firmly committed to right-sizing our federal government, tackling the national debt, and working with the Trump administration to unleash Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential. I am also committed to delivering as many “bad weeks” for Chuck Schumer as possible.
Sen. Dan Sullivan has served in the US Senate for Alaska since 2015.
I appreciate the LNG and other responsible developments.
I disagree completely with the CR. You have adopted the schumer-biden spending plan and co-op’d as your own. It is now the repub stupid spending program.
Sen Paul’s crafted ammendment codified the savings that you nearsightedly disregarded.
That ammendment had support in the House.
I do not care about Schumer’s week. I care about getting spending under control which you do not seem to understand based upon your voting record. I care about fixing the NPFMC which again you are unwilling to tackle.
Dan … Might want to seriously consider formally ‘codifying’ these EO’s.
Then, Dan, you turn and kick Trump in the bum by voting to a sell out to Canada. In the trade that is called “Two Faced”. This is more than a disagreement and you should recognize it for what it is. Really disappointing.
Cheers, Johnson-Ketchikan
Great job Senator Sullivan!
So how would you explain to Alaska’s American taxpayers what real value they’d derived from the $131 million in USAID funds that your now apparently shuttered “International Republican Institute” money pit was gifted with, Danny?
And who among the board members, including yourself, received salaries and/or other tangible benefits from association with your side gig?
And while your at it, can you chime in on whether you’d recused yourself from voting on spending bills which included USAID appropriations resulting in large transfers of American taxpayers’ money to this expensive black hole yours like an ethical Senator would be expected to do?
Thanks, Danny!
“We need to scrutinize waste that clearly exists in our foreign aid programs…”
– Sen Dan Sullivan
I’m a fan of scrutinizing waste and I applaud your interest in same, Dan. I found the following comment in a recent article by Mr. Dermot Cole to be bothersome and I’d appreciate your take on it. Mr. Cole’s article included the following statement:
“In 2024, USAID supported the International Republican Institute to organize voter registration mobilization initiatives targeting marginalized communities in Ghana—including the Fulbe, who registered to vote for the first time. USAID believes supporting inclusive participation in political processes deepens democracy, builds social cohesion, and strengthens resilience against violent extremism,” USAID said.
You lead that group and have solicited well in excess of 100 million dollars during your time in the saddle. Surely that group has done something tangible w/ that much money and it can’t have anything to do w/ voter registration in Ghana which would benefit neither Americans nor people in Ghana.
We all enjoy reading about good weeks, bad weeks and general Trump progress but we’ve also all heard the old saw about how a single aw sh*t wipes out 1000 attaboys. Can you help us understand how you used that $100mm plus and how much of it specifically may have been slipped into any politician’s pockets for their trouble? Maybe list off the top ten recipients of that money? It would appear that Mr. Musk has killed that IRI program off which would make it appear you may be something different from what we’d all like to believe after having read your cheerleading piece above. Please help us understand your involvement in IRI and what the money was used for. We’d love the chance to be proud of our home town boy and we’d very much like to know you’re not the swamp creature that your leadership of that program would appear to identify you as.
Do you suspect that Mr. Musk or Ms. Leavitt may have a perspective to share that may not be entirely complimentary of IRI?
A good Start. Now, start recovering Alaskan lands to Alaskans from Federal overlordship.
Just something simple to begin…maybe a mere 10000 acres a year for the next thirty or forty years; acres of Alaska’s choice to be returned to our state.
Maybe as a “new” Homestead Act.
“If the CR had not passed, not only would the government have shut down, this would have blocked the largest pay raise for junior enlisted troops in decades, major funding for the US Coast Guard, and other important priorities for Alaska.”
Here is the problem with Deep State Dan. He is wanting a small slice of spending to support the troops so he votes for massive spending bills that will bankrupt the country but score him political points. That money is small fractions of what all is being spent. If our representatives actually did their jobs they could work on these issues individually and not bury many future generations is debt. Our Senator from Ohio is working non stop to destroy our children’s futures. But hey if there is a way to wave a flag in front of some troops. pose with a gun or boldly support oil drilling Dan will be there!
Yo Dan… this here’s an interactive blog. Instead of us reading your ghost writer’s cheerleading piece as if it were an advertisement, why don’t you log on here and respond to a couple of serious questions that have arisen based on your recent behavior.
The non-profit you lead requested and rec’d $131mm US tax dollars and we’d like to know how that was spent. It looks very much like junket money for politicians with parasitic inclinations and refusing to acknowledge the question would confirm that instead of scrutinizing waste you actually have your hand in our pockets.
We know you read this site and we need to know how that money was dispersed and to whom. Talk to us, Dan.
Are you going to have anything to say as the Chairman of the IRI, Dan? This is a direct reflection on your integrity and your constituent base deserves accountability from you. Oh yeah, and if you’re wondering… the Clam won’t let it go.
Let’s start w/ an easy question and we’ll use 2022’s tax filing for reference
Total Revenue: $134,932,880
Total # of employees: 8
Total paid to employees: @ $1.7mm
Total travel expenses for the year: @ $12mm
Current flight cost from Anchorage to Hawaii on Alaska Airlines is $198 each way or $396 RT.
For your 8 employees that would amount to more than thirty thousand round trip flights to Hawaii in a single year… but if all eight people flew every day that would only account for fewer than 3000 RT flights. More than 27,000 flights would be missing.
To everyone looking at those numbers your $12mm in travel expenses would indicate that many MANY extravagant junkets had been taken. Got a comment for us? I’d be happy to send this up the chain to see if the folks at DOGE, Ms. Leavitt or others might care to take a closer peek, particularly if it’s your preference to ignore questions from your constituent base.
Haven’t seen the tax docs? Have a look here:
‘https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521340267/202432269349302278/full
BTW, I particularly like the mission statement:
IRI ADVANCES FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY WORLDWIDE BY DEVELOPING POLITICAL PARTIES, CIVIC INSTITUTIONS, OPEN ELECTIONS, DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE AND THE RULE OF LAW.
That mission statement is crafted specifically to allow for unbridled world travel with the hoped for outcome that no one might question expenses. How has your sidelining and spending $135mm benefited the American people? It’s a fair question, Dan. What say you?