Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general and Harmeet Dhillon as head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, who in May 2025 dropped the federal cases against the Minneapolis and Louisville police departments and retracted findings of constitutional violations against six more. He voted twice to confirm Todd Blanche, whose Justice Department moved to dismiss the remaining charges against officers in the Breonna Taylor warrant case and declined to open a civil-rights investigation after an ICE agent killed Renee Good in Minneapolis.
On July 1, 2025, Sullivan cast one of the 50 votes for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, whose Medicaid work requirement exempts people leaving jail or prison for only three months. From January 2027 that applies in Alaska, an expansion state, to people leaving custody, a group with a far higher risk of fatal overdose after release.
Dan Sullivan's Confirmations and Votes on Policing and Prisons
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm the Justice Department Leaders Who Dropped Police Reform Cases. Sullivan voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general on February 4, 2025 and Harmeet Dhillon as assistant attorney general for civil rights on April 3, 2025, and Dhillon was confirmed 52 to 45. On May 21, 2025, the department announced it was dismissing lawsuits against the Louisville, Kentucky and Minneapolis, Minnesota police departments and moving to retract the Biden administration's findings of constitutional violations against six other police agencies. In Minneapolis, the court then dismissed the case with prejudice, bringing federal oversight to an end despite the City's support for the agreement, Red Line for Civil Rights reported. In Cleveland, the department asked to end that city's agreement early, and a federal court rejected the DOJ Civil Rights Division's motion in May 2026.
- Sullivan Voted Twice to Confirm Todd Blanche, Whose Justice Department Dropped the Breonna Taylor Warrant Case and Declined to Investigate the Renee Good Killing. Sullivan voted to confirm Todd Blanche as deputy attorney general on March 5, 2025 and as attorney general on August 8, 2026, a 50 to 49 vote Blanche would have lost without Sullivan. With Blanche as deputy, In March 2026, DOJ moved to dismiss the remaining charges without explanation against two former Louisville officers charged over the warrant in the Breonna Taylor case, Red Line reported. In January 2026, after an ICE agent killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, the department decided the Civil Rights Division would not conduct a criminal investigation into the shooting, prompting a wave of resignations from the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's office.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm the Attorneys General Who Ran a Short-Staffed Federal Prison System. Sullivan voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general on February 4, 2025; she was confirmed 54 to 46. In 2025 the bureau paid more than $387 million in overtime to staff in 2025 after its agency saw more than 1,400 corrections officers and other staff leave their positions, and the Government Accountability Office found First Step Act transfers to halfway houses and home confinement were late: the releases were delayed in 70% of cases reviewed, NOTUS reported. In July 2026, with Blanche as acting attorney general, the bureau announced six prison closures, and Approximately 5,416 people in custody and 500 BOP staff will be directly affected.
- Sullivan Cast One of the 50 Votes for a Medicaid Work Rule That Exempts People Leaving Prison for Only Three Months. On July 1, 2025, Sullivan voted yes on H.R. 1, which passed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote. The law's work requirement exempts a person only if at any point during the 3-month period ending on the first day of such month, the individual was an inmate of a public institution. On January 1, 2027, Medicaid work requirements are scheduled to take effect nationwide, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care warned, and after three months people leaving prison or jail must document 80 hours of work a month or lose the coverage that pays for addiction treatment and medication. A 2018 study found former inmates were 40 times more likely than members of the general population to suffer a fatal overdose in the first two weeks after release, MindSite News reported.
What the Criminal Justice Decisions Dan Sullivan Backed Mean for Alaska
- Reentry coverage. Because Alaska expanded Medicaid, the work requirement applies to Alaskans leaving jail or prison once their three-month exemption ends. The Alaska Department of Health projects that (18,905 individuals) would need to submit paperwork to manually report work or an exemption under the requirement, and that between 9,452 and 13,611 could lose coverage.
- Federal civil-rights oversight. The Justice Department's retreat from police oversight means no new federal pattern-or-practice case has replaced the ones dropped in 2025: Red Line reports it knows of no new civil case or investigation the Civil Rights Division has announced since January 20, 2025 involving systemic discrimination against Black, Latino or Native American people.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dan Sullivan on Criminal justice
What is Dan Sullivan's record on criminal justice under Trump?
Dan Sullivan voted to confirm Pam Bondi and Harmeet Dhillon, whose Justice Department dropped the Minneapolis and Louisville police cases, and twice voted to confirm Todd Blanche, whose department dropped the Breonna Taylor warrant charges and declined a civil-rights investigation of the Renee Good killing. He also voted for the 2025 law whose Medicaid work rule exempts people leaving prison for only three months.
Will people leaving prison in Alaska lose Medicaid under the law Dan Sullivan voted for?
They can: Dan Sullivan voted for a law that exempts people leaving jail or prison from the Medicaid work requirement only during the 3-month period after release, and Alaska, as an expansion state, must apply the requirement starting in 2027. After that, they must report work hours or an exemption to keep coverage.
Did Dan Sullivan vote to confirm Harmeet Dhillon?
Yes. Dan Sullivan voted to confirm Harmeet Dhillon as head of the Civil Rights Division on April 3, 2025. Under her, the division dropped its police cases in Minneapolis and Louisville, and a court in Minneapolis dismissed the case with prejudice.
Last updated: 2026-10-25