Press Releases

11.04.15

Sullivan Applauds Passage of Bill to Overturn Harmful WOTUS Rule

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) released the following statement today after the U.S. Senate passed bipartisan legislation to nullify the Environmental Protection Agency's Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. "Today, on behalf of the American people, the U.S. Senate sent a strong message to the Obama Administration that this kind of federal-agency overreach will not be tolerated," said Senator Sullivan. "The WOTUS rule is a prime example of this Administration's persisten… Continue Reading


10.30.15

Sullivan to Obama Administration: Where is Your Plan to Lift Anemic Economic Growth Rate?

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) released the following statement after yesterday's announcement by the Commerce Department that the U.S. economy limped along at only 1.5 percent GDP growth last quarter: "It's remarkable that quarter after quarter, year after year, the Obama Administration seems to be satisfied with such tepid economic growth, which clearly undermines the future of our country and makes addressing challenges like the deficit and exploding debt all the more diff… Continue Reading


10.30.15

Sullivan Votes Against Debt Limit Deal

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) released the following statement after voting against H.R. 1314, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, legislation to suspend the federal debt limit until March 2017: "I voted against this bill for a number of reasons. It spends too much on growing federal agencies like the EPA, IRS and the Department of the Interior, and spends too little on our nation's defense and the brave young men and women who serve in our military. It also does nothing to… Continue Reading


10.27.15

NEW YORK TIMES: White House Moves to Reassure Allies With South China Sea Patrol, but Quietly

by Helene Cooper and Jane Perlez

WASHINGTON - For months, lawmakers and national security hawks have urged President Obama to stand up to China's land reclamation of disputed islands in the South China Sea. But now that the Obama administration finally has, the White House does not want to talk about it. In sending a guided missile destroyer late Monday into waters China considers its territory, the Obama administration sought to exercise what officials called the right to freedom of navigation in international waters. The m… Continue Reading


10.22.15

Senate Passes Legislation to Combat Pirate Fishing

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Senate last night unanimously passed the Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Enforcement Act of 2015. In May, Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and Brian Schatz (D-HI) introduced legislation to combat the multi-billion dollar threat posed by illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities. The legislation is the House companion to the Senate bill, which passed the House of Representatives in July. The bill now heads to the President… Continue Reading


10.21.15

Alaska Delegation Continues to Promote Strategic Buildup of Interior Alaska

WASHINGTON, DC - The Alaska Congressional Delegation today welcomed news from the Missile Defense Agency that they have awarded a $784,289,883 contract to Lockheed Martin to build the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR). The contract specifies that the work is to be done at Clear Air Force Station, Alaska as well as Lockheed Martin's facility in New Jersey. The LRDR is a critical MDA project which will substantially improve our nation's Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) capabilities. The L… Continue Reading


10.14.15

Sullivan Testifies In Support of Alaska Native Veterans Land Allotment Equity Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) recently testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests and Mining in support of S. 1955, the Alaska Native Veterans Land Allotment Equity Act. The legislation, introduced by Senator Sullivan and co-sponsored by Senator Lisa Murkowski, would allow approximately 2,800 Alaska Natives who served in Vietnam, and missed an earlier opportunity because of that service, to apply for their government-promi… Continue Reading


10.09.15

Bipartisan Tsunami Bill Unanimously Passes Senate, Strengthens Coastal Disaster Preparedness

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and Brian Schatz (D-HI) announced their tsunami detection and warning systems legislation unanimously passed the Senate. The bill reauthorizes and enhances tsunami preparedness and increases investment in research to protect coastal communities. The Tsunami Warning, Education and Research Act of 2015 would strengthen the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) tsunami warning system and advance new res… Continue Reading


10.09.15

Sullivan Statement on Nationwide Stay of EPA’s WOTUS Rule

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK), chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works' Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife, released the following statement regarding the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to issue a nationwide stay on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) flawed Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule: "I'm grateful that the court has halted this over-reaching jurisdictional expansion - known as the Waters of the U.S. r… Continue Reading


10.07.15

Sullivan Applauds Senate Passage of NDAA Conference Report

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the U.S. Senate passed the conference report for the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, successfully included an amendment in the final NDAA Conference Report that aims to respond to the plan to downsize the 4-25 Airborne Brigade Combat Team currently stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, AK. As Russia militarizes the Arctic Region, Sen. Sullivan's amend… Continue Reading


10.07.15

VA Announces Pilot Program to Help Fix Alaska’s Broken VA Health Care System

WASHINGTON, DC - At a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on pending health care and benefits legislation, Dr. Thomas Lynch, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health Clinical Operations, announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will be creating a new pilot program in Alaska to address the failed implementation of the Veterans Choice Program in the state. The announcement of an Alaska VA pilot program follows a Veterans' Affairs Committee field hearing held by Senator Sull… Continue Reading


09.28.15

Sullivan Reacts to Shell Arctic OCS Announcement

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) released the following statement today after Shell's announcement that it is abandoning its Arctic drilling program, citing high costs and the "challenging and unpredictable federal regulatory environment." Senator Sullivan said: "Shell's announcement is being cheered by environmental groups, but it's a very sad day for Alaska and for working Alaskans and Americans across the country. From the beginning, through unprecedented regulatory hurdles … Continue Reading


09.18.15

Senator Continues to Drive Timeline On Fixing Alaska’s Broken VA System

WASHINGTON, DC - At a recent Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing, committee member Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) continued to press the Veterans Administration (VA) on the importance of immediately fixing the implementation of the Choice Act, which has resulted in a broken VA healthcare program in Alaska. At the hearing, Thomas Lynch, the VA's assistant deputy under-secretary for Health Clinical Operations, gave assurances that the VA was working to fix the problems and committed to moving up the … Continue Reading


09.18.15

ICYMI: Sullivan Highlights Obama Administration’s Contradictory Policies in South China Sea

WASHINGTON, DC - During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday, Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) continued to highlight the Obama administration's conflicting and confused policies in the South China Sea, where China has been feverishly building islands by piling sand onto reefs in disputed territory. According to Ambassador David Shear, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, "China has now reclaimed more than 2,900 acres, amounting to 17 times more land i… Continue Reading


09.17.15

Alaska Senators Co-Sponsor Legislation to Repeal “Cadillac Tax”

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Alaska Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski joined Senators Dean Heller (R-NV) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) in introducing S. 2045, the Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act of 2015. This bipartisan legislation will fully repeal tax provisions on high-cost insurance plans in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) known as the "Cadillac Tax". Beginning in 2018, the "Cadillac Tax" would tax employers whose health insurance plans cost more than $10,200 a year for individual… Continue Reading


08.31.15

Sullivan brings Washington to vets

An idea that started in Alaska to provide better care by the Veterans Administration for vets known as the Veterans Access, Choice & Accountability Act seems to have backfired for Alaskan vets according to freshman U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R) Alaska. "Ultimately this was about bringing Washington D.C. to Alaska," Sullivan told the Dispatch in an interview before the Kenai hearing. "To have some of the senior VA officials here in Alaska. The Secretary of the VA was here two weeks ago and to… Continue Reading


08.27.15

President must experience 'real' Alaska through its people

by Sen. Dan Sullivan

Alaska has benefited from many Presidential visits, and it's always good to have the national spotlight shine on us. President Ronald Reagan's visits were particularly memorable, given his keen appreciation for Alaska's vast natural resources and understanding of the federal government's history of locking up those resources by taking Alaska lands. "It's absolutely ridiculous," President Reagan said in a 1979 campaign stop, bemoaning federal land-grabs. "It's gotten to the point where a tourist… Continue Reading


08.27.15

Fixing Alaska's model VA system: Used to reform national veterans' care, state system now needs help

by Fairbanks Daily News-Miner Editorial Board

News-Miner opinion: A year and a half ago, the national Veterans Affairs health system was in disarray. At clinics across the Lower 48, veterans waited for care for weeks and months, in some cases dying before receiving treatment. But the Alaska system was a different story. Thanks to reforms pushed by the state's congressional delegation, the Last Frontier's veterans had shorter waits and better access to care. So Congress developed a national system akin to Alaska's - only to have its rollout … Continue Reading


08.17.15

Sullivan: Russian moves highlight Arctic concerns

by Becky Bohrer

JUNEAU, Alaska - U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said the Russians are looking to militarize the Arctic, making it all the more important for the U.S. to have a broad Arctic strategy that includes having sufficient troops based in Alaska. Sullivan said Monday that's why he has been critical of proposed troop reductions in Alaska as part of a cost-saving plan announced by the Army this summer. His office said Sullivan got included in the Senate version of a defense spending bill a provision to r… Continue Reading


08.07.15

Sullivan says August is Opportunity for Vets to be Heard, Announces VA Listening Sessions & Field Hearing

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Given the importance of Alaska veterans to the state and to the country, the month of August will be a great opportunity for Alaskans to directly engage with VA officials in the state, including with VA Secretary Bob McDonald, and David Shulkin, the VA Undersecretary of Health. At U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan's request, Dr. Shulkin, along with other state officials, will attend two listening sessions and an official field hearing on August 24 and 25, focusing on problems with the… Continue Reading

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