In the News/Op-Eds

11.13.19

A bill that would combat plastic pollution in the ocean won approval in another Senate committee despite objections from one of the chamber’s most active environmentalists. The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved S. 1982, also known as the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act, on a voice vote at a Nov. 13 markup. The bill, […]

11.13.19

OPINION — We may have plenty of political differences, but we come from coastal states. That means we have a front-row seat to the peril of plastic waste and marine debris flowing into our oceans at the rate of around 8 million metric tons per year. We understand what it will mean for our fishing […]

10.26.19

“WITHOUT CHANGE,” warns a bipartisan group of senators, “there will be more plastic by weight than fish in the oceans by 2050.” Some of the signs of this growing crisis are visible: sea turtles caught in discarded fishing nets; piles of trash floating in the ocean; birds and fish stranded in plastic six-pack rings. But much of […]

06.27.19

KODIAK — U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) introduced a new bill Wednesday aimed at cleaning up the marine debris crisis affecting America’s oceans, shorelines and inland waterways, as well as other coasts across the globe. At a press conference in Washington, D.C., the three senators unveiled new legislation […]

06.27.19

When President Trump signed a bill aimed at cleaning up plastic trash last fall, he noted the unlikely pair of senators standing by his side: Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, and Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska. “The president remarked on us being a rather odd couple,” Whitehouse said yesterday at a Capitol […]

03.29.19

Now that the Mueller investigation is over, we can put to bed the persistent and erroneous allegations that President Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russians to get him elected. Likewise, we should also put to bed another persistent and pernicious narrative: that the president and his administration have been “soft” on Russia. This narrative has […]

06.13.18

Republicans and defense experts are warning that President Donald Trump’s idea of pulling American troops from South Korea would undermine stability across Asia and weaken the U.S. against China. One GOP senator, Alaska’s Dan Sullivan, is pushing legislative language touting the importance of the U.S. military presence in deterring North Korean aggression — in contrast […]

06.26.17

Liberal opposition to missile defense has persisted since the 1980s, but the politics may be changing with technological progress and the rising threat from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons. Congress has an opportunity this summer to notch a rare bipartisan deal that enhances U.S. security. Kim has already overseen more nuclear and […]

02.02.17

As a candidate, Donald Trump said he would “tear up” the Iran nuclear deal once elected. Many of us in the Senate strongly opposed this deal on substance — it provides the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism a pathway toward to nuclear weapons inside of a decade — and also on process. The Obama […]

12.05.16

President-elect Donald Trump has made investing in U.S. infrastructure a priority. This country urgently needs to build and repair roads, bridges, airports, pipelines and rail lines. But a huge roadblock is the federal permitting system. Even with a more business-friendly administration, a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan won’t accomplish much unless Congress reforms the way public-works projects […]