In the News/Op-eds
EDITORIAL: Alaska hurting from fentanyl
by Editorial Board
A recent story spoke to the alarming statics regarding Alaska drug overdoses, especially related to fentanyl. Such opioids killed a record number of Alaskans in 2023 as Alaska’s percentage of drug overdoses increased by 40% — the largest increase of any state for ’23. Alaska had 123 drug overdose deaths in 2014, 105 in 1018 and 342 in 2023. To say that Alaska is under attack is an understatement. But that is how U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan sees it. He has started a statewide fentanyl awareness ca… Continue Reading
09.20.24
OP-ED: Biden’s Last Opportunity to Stand Up to Iran
by Sen. Dan Sullivan
On Monday I will go to New York with a group of senators to meet with foreign leaders at the United Nations General Assembly. President Biden will likely give his last major foreign-policy speech on Tuesday, a final opportunity to correct course. It’s hard to deny that the world is more dangerous today than when he became president. There are many reasons for this, but the single most important course correction Mr. Biden could make is on his Middle East policy. In his speech he should call on … Continue Reading
07.12.24
OP-ED: The U.S. Needs to Rebuild Its Military Might
by Sen. Dan Sullivan
Nearly every leader I spoke with during this week’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit agrees: The world has become consumed by chaos. Dictators in Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are working together to undermine the free world. There’s little doubt why they feel emboldened: Under the Biden administration, U.S. military readiness has significantly diminished and authoritarians sense weakness. They’re perceptive. America urgently needs to embrace the philosophy of peace through stren… Continue Reading
06.10.24
OP-ED: Congress must step in to fix America’s shipbuilding crisis
by Sen. Dan Sullivan
06.09.24
OP-ED: Sullivan corrects the record on News-Miner’s account of flag incident
by Sen. Dan Sullivan
While I don’t always agree with the News-Miner’ editorials, I have long respected its professional work, especially getting the facts right. But the recent editorial, “The media rush that sparked a flag frenzy and got it all wrong,” misses the mark in so many ways, I felt compelled to respond personally. But before recounting the serious problems with this editorial, let me start with what happened and share an area of agreement. My office received a phone call from a constituent who was worki… Continue Reading
01.19.24
OP-ED: Alaska Uniquely Positioned to Strengthen National Security During Dangerous Period
by Sen. Dan Sullivan
We are in one of the most dangerous period in U.S. history since World War II—a new era of authoritarian aggression led by the dictators in Moscow, Beijing and Tehran. This difficult reality faces us nearly every day: joint Russian and Chinese naval flotillas operating off Alaska’s coast, the barbaric attack by Iran-funded Hamas terrorists against Israel, other Iranian-backed terrorists lobbing missiles to shut down global shipping lanes in the Middle East, and the Chinese Communist Party threat… Continue Reading
10.08.23
OP-ED: Stars are aligned to make a major push for Alaska LNG
by Sen. Dan Sullivan
There is no doubt that our state and nation are facing many challenges. Inflation is eating into paychecks. The wide-open southern border is fueling thousands of fentanyl overdoses. The cost of energy is skyrocketing. At every turn, it seems that the Biden administration is determined to shut down our state. Here is another challenge: Alaska’s Railbelt utilities are predicting that without further significant discoveries in the Cook Inlet, within the next five years, we will be forced to import… Continue Reading
08.07.23
OP-ED: Uniting Alaskans to address the youth mental health crisis
by Sen. Dan Sullivan
On June 26, I hosted the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, in Anchorage to hold a series of town hall-style roundtables—as well as a Facebook Live dialogue—to discuss the mental health crisis among our youth, how social media impacts that crisis, and how we can work together to combat it. The meetings were very productive and I thank the hundreds of Alaska mental health experts, parents, youth, public officials, tribal and non-profit leaders, for sharing their insights and for coming toget… Continue Reading
08.01.22
EDITORIAL: A Permitting Test for Democrats
by Editorial Board
Permitting headaches for public works are a bipartisan complaint. So we wonder: Will Democratic Senators join their Republican colleagues in voting to reverse a Biden Administration rule that adds costly new roadblocks? Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan plans to call for a vote as early as this week on a resolution to overturn a Council on Environmental Quality change to permitting rules under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Under the Congressional Review Act, a simple majority of both ch… Continue Reading
05.18.22
ARTICLE: Sen. Sullivan looks to curb power of giant investment firms embracing ESG
by Zachary Halaschak
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) has introduced legislation to rein in the power over corporations enjoyed by the biggest asset managers, many of whom have provoked Republicans by embracing "Environmental, Social, and Governance" standards for businesses. The Investor Democracy Is Expected Act would give more power to passive investors who invest their money in mutual and exchange-traded funds through firms like Vanguard. It would require money managers to vote proxies based on their clients' wishes ra… Continue Reading
05.18.22
ARTICLE: Lawmakers Seek to Curb Voting Power of BlackRock, Vanguard and Other Big Asset Managers
by Angel Au-Yeung
A group of Republican senators is looking to curtail the power big asset managers like BlackRock Inc. and Vanguard Group have over public companies. In legislation to be introduced Wednesday, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska) calls for voting choice to be made available to individual investors in passive funds when money managers own more than 1% of a company's voting securities. Big asset managers like BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street Corp. STT -2.56% have grown rapidly in recent years, fue… Continue Reading
04.17.22
OP-ED: Sullivan and Inupiaq Leader: As Interior Secretary Visits Alaska, Here’s What We’d Like Her to Say.
by Harry Brower and Dan Sullivan
As many Alaskans know, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland is visiting our state this coming week, including a visit to Utqiagvik. It's a commitment that she gave to Sen. Dan Sullivan prior to her confirmation, and we are heartened that she's living up to this commitment. Because of the power Interior secretaries have over our state, the relationship between the secretary and state leaders has at various times in history been strained. And many of the decisions that the Interior Department, o… Continue Reading
03.04.22
OP-ED: Let Alaska Sell American Energy to the World
by Harry Brower Jr. and Josiah Patkotak
Even as Russian tanks lined up on the Ukrainian border in February, the Biden administration froze U.S. drilling on federal lands and issued rules making it harder to build natural-gas pipelines. We may be Inupiaq Eskimos 5,000 miles away from the Washington policy machine, but we know crazy when we see it. And this is crazy. Big profits from oil and gas exports to Europe and the U.S. are enabling Vladimir Putin's aggression in Ukraine. Curtailing U.S. energy production forces the world to buy … Continue Reading
01.08.22
OP-ED: Headwinds and hope for the new year
by Sen. Dan Sullivan
Let's face it, 2021 was another tough year. The pandemic, which we had all hoped would be in the rearview mirror by now, is still front and center. It's taken too many lives of our fellow Americans, and has greatly disrupted our communities. Inflation, which is at a 40-year high, is shrinking the budgets of working Alaskans. Compounding these serious challenges is the Biden administration's open hostility to Alaska's economy and our way of life. However, despite these challenges, we have been a… Continue Reading
04.27.21
INTERVIEW: Sen. Dan Sullivan on Fox Business Network's "Kudlow"
Transcript LARRY KUDLOW, FBN ANCHOR: So, we bring in Senator Dan Sullivan who is a great friend from the great state of Alaska. Dan, it's very brave, you called his resignation -- and by the way, he's not my favorite person in Washington, so I'm sure not going to defend him. But I just do want to ask to fill the story out. Israel itself apparently has publicly released this notion or these factoids that they attacked Iranian interests in Syria 200 times, but we don't know exactly when, I gues… Continue Reading
04.26.21
OP-ED: America deserves a pro-jobs climate plan
by Sen. Dan Sullivan
America stands at a strategic crossroads. We could enact the Biden administration's climate change policies that would shut down whole industries, provide pink slips to millions of American workers during a pandemic with no alternatives in the near term, drastically raise prices on American families, undermine economic growth, decrease energy reliability, diminish our national security and do little or nothing to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Or we could pursue a worker-oriented en… Continue Reading
03.24.21
For Senate die-hards, no sweeter sound than ‘Alaskan of the Week’
by Chris Cioffi
When Sen. Dan Sullivan comes up on C-SPAN with his familiar sunset poster, a sigh of relief runs through Washington. "It's that time again," he says, standing next to a mountain scene aglow with orange, pink and purple. This is "Alaskan of the Week," the only speech in the Senate that elicits gleeful tweets from jaded floor watchers. They know what it means for the chamber - and pre-pandemic, their evening plans. Business is usually done and almost everyone is gone. The last thing left to … Continue Reading
02.27.21
OP-ED: Even during a pandemic, the iconic Iditarod continues
by Sens. Dan Sullivan & Lisa Murkowski, and Rep. Don Young
The Iditarod - the Last Great Race - captures the imagination and the hearts of many Alaskans, as well as people around the world. Teams of mushers and their dogs racing roughly 1,000 miles across the state of Alaska toward the finish line in Nome, in some of the harshest conditions and across some of the most difficult and rugged terrain on the planet. It is quintessentially Alaskan. There are other sled dog races around the world and throughout Alaska, but the Iditarod is the most renowne… Continue Reading
02.26.21
Former legislator Bud Fate remembered as Renaissance man
by Amanda Bohman
Hugh "Bud" Fate died late Thursday. The U.S. Army veteran, who used the G.I. Bill to study dentistry and brought dental care to rural Alaska, served in the Alaska Legislature representing Fairbanks in the early 2000s. While the 91-year-old lived an accomplished life, many people knew him as the husband of the late Mary Jane Fate, originally of Rampart, who co-founded the Breast Cancer Detection Center of Alaska and the Fairbanks Native Association. She was the first woman to co-chair the Alaska… Continue Reading
01.29.21
Odd couple: How a Republican senator and Biden’s defense secretary became friends downrange
by Joe Gould
WASHINGTON ? Long before he was U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, he was Marine Reserve Maj. Dan Sullivan, tapped to write U.S. Central Command's strategy document and, by his telling, not getting much help from the subordinate commanders in the region. That is, until he went to Lloyd Austin, then CENTCOM's two-star chief of staff. "He did a big video teleconference with all the subordinate commanders and said in very forceful language: This guy is doing it and you better help him," Sullivan, R-Alaska, t… Continue Reading
