Dan Sullivan voted to confirm export-control chief Jeffrey Kessler, whose Commerce Department began licensing Nvidia AI chips for China in August 2025 in exchange for 15% of their revenues from chip sales to China and later cleared the more powerful H200, which Council on Foreign Relations analysts found is more than six times more powerful than the best U.S. AI chip available in China today. In June 2026, Sullivan voted against barring one person from running the intelligence community while heading another agency, two days after the President named the housing-finance regulator acting director of national intelligence.
Sullivan also voted to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director, under whom 23 percent of the roughly 13,000 total FBI agents were moved to immigration work, and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who ran the tariff fight with China. For Alaska, where China was the largest buyer of raw Alaska fish by volume in 2023 and 2024, an Anchorage economist said China's retaliation causes the most acute pain for the industry.
Dan Sullivan's Votes and Confirmations on China and National Security
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm the Export-Control Chief Whose Department Licensed AI Chip Sales to China. On March 13, 2025, Dan Sullivan voted to confirm Jeffrey Kessler as the Commerce Department's under secretary for industry and security, who runs export controls. Commerce started issuing H20 licenses on Aug. 8, two days after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met the President, with Nvidia and AMD agreeing to pay 15% of their revenues from chip sales to China to the U.S. government. In December 2025 the administration cleared Nvidia's H200 for China with 25 percent of the revenue going to the government, and in January 2026 Commerce published a new regulation permitting the sale of advanced AI chips to China. The analysts wrote that China's military is actively seeking Nvidia chips to build AI-enabled military capabilities.
- Sullivan Voted Against Barring a Dual-Role Intelligence Chief During the Iran War. On June 4, 2026, Sullivan voted no on Senator Mark Warner's amendment "to prohibit an individual from acting as Director of National Intelligence if such individual is simultaneously serving as the head of any other Federal department or agency." It failed 49 to 49 under a 60-vote threshold. Two days earlier the President named Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte acting director of national intelligence, and Trump said Pulte will keep his other positions even as he fills in for Gabbard; the Associated Press described Pulte as having no clear national security credentials. Pulte held both posts during the war with Iran until the Senate confirmed a new director on July 28, 2026.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm Kash Patel, Who Moved Counterintelligence Agents to Immigration Work. On February 20, 2025, Sullivan voted to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director, by 51 to 49. Former agents said 23 percent of the roughly 13,000 total FBI agents have been reassigned to work on immigration enforcement and that agents with expertise on foreign adversaries such as China, Iran, and Russia are now handling immigration cases, The New Republic reported. In February 2026 Patel fired a dozen agents and staff members from a counterintelligence unit that also tracks foreign spies operating on US soil, CNN reported.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm Tulsi Gabbard, Who Cut the Intelligence Office That Tracked Foreign Influence. On February 12, 2025, Sullivan voted to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence; she was confirmed 52 to 48 with no Democratic votes. In August 2025 Gabbard announced her office will cut nearly half its workforce, dissolving the Foreign Malign Influence Center, National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center and the cyber threat center, and began revoking the security clearances of 37 current and former U.S. officials.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm Kristi Noem, Whose Department Cut a Third of the Cybersecurity Agency. On January 25, 2025, Sullivan voted to confirm Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security, which includes the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. By June 2026 the cyber agency has lost roughly one-third of its workforce since early 2025, and recent layoffs included staff working to combat intrusion campaigns by Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon, the Chinese state hacking groups, NOTUS reported.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm the Trade and Treasury Officials Behind the China Tariff Fight. Sullivan voted to confirm Jamieson Greer as trade representative on February 26, 2025 and Scott Bessent as treasury secretary on January 27, 2025. China answered the tariffs with retaliatory duties that covered sorghum, soybeans, pork, beef, seafoods and other farm goods, and with rare-earth limits after which U.S. manufacturers soon began shutting down production amid ongoing shortages, the Center for Strategic and International Studies found.
- Sullivan Voted for China Rules That Slowed Clean-Energy Investment in July 2025. On July 1, 2025, Sullivan voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote and bars clean-energy tax credits for companies and projects tied to China and other "foreign entities of concern" under sourcing rules so complex that the Bipartisan Policy Center found regulatory uncertainty is likely to stifle near-term investment. The law's $156.2 billion increase in national defense funding is one-time money that may risk becoming short-term acquisitions rather than enduring capabilities, the Council on Foreign Relations noted.
- Sullivan Said He Was "Totally Okay" With Tariffs on China. On November 26, 2024, Sullivan told Alaska's News Source that he backed hitting China with tariffs: "I'm actually totally okay with that, and President Trump made that clear." The Alaska seafood industry's annual report found that its reliance on global markets leaves the industry acutely vulnerable to the direct consequences of new U.S. import tariffs and to retaliation by trading partners.
What the China and Security Decisions Dan Sullivan Backed Mean for Alaska
- Seafood markets. China in 2023 and 2024 was the largest buyer of raw Alaska fish by volume, and University of Alaska Anchorage economist Brett Watson told the Alaska Beacon, "It's really when China retaliates against us that causes the most acute pain for the industry."
- Cyber defense. The national cyber agency that helps states and utilities, including Alaska's, defend against Chinese hacking has lost roughly one-third of its workforce since early 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dan Sullivan on China and national security
What is Dan Sullivan's record on China and national security under Trump?
Dan Sullivan voted to confirm Jeffrey Kessler, whose department licensed Nvidia AI chips for China in exchange for a share of the revenue, voted in June 2026 against barring a dual-role intelligence chief, and voted to confirm Kash Patel, under whom FBI agents with China expertise were moved to immigration cases. He also said he was "totally okay" with tariffs on China, whose retaliation hits Alaska seafood.
Did Dan Sullivan support selling Nvidia AI chips to China?
Dan Sullivan voted to confirm Jeffrey Kessler, the export-control official whose department licensed Nvidia's chips for sale to China and in January 2026 published a new regulation permitting the sale of advanced AI chips to China. The record does not show a statement by Sullivan on the sales themselves.
How does China's tariff retaliation affect Alaska's seafood industry?
Dan Sullivan backed tariffs on China, and China's retaliatory duties in March 2025 covered sorghum, soybeans, pork, beef, seafoods and other goods. China had been the largest buyer of raw Alaska fish by volume in 2023 and 2024, though most of that fish was processed and shipped elsewhere.
Last updated: 2026-10-25