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.
