On June 30, 2025, Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan voted against a motion to strip the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's new paperwork requirements and against one to strike its Medicaid cuts, then cast one of the 50 votes that passed it. The law's Medicaid work requirement exempts disabled adults only if states can verify their condition, and the rule written by the agency of Mehmet Oz, whom Sullivan voted to confirm, narrows who counts as medically frail. In Alaska, 18,905 people would have to file paperwork to keep their coverage, and 734 Alaskans were already on the waiting list for Medicaid home care.
Sullivan also voted to confirm the Justice Department and Health and Human Services officials who cut disability-rights enforcement by about 85 percent, declared that federal law imposes no duty on states to offer care at home instead of in institutions, and joined a lawsuit's plaintiff states in asking a court to erase the federal rule against unnecessary segregation of people with disabilities.
Dan Sullivan's Votes and Confirmations on Disability Rights
- Sullivan Voted Against Removing the Paperwork Rules That Push Disabled Adults Off Medicaid in June 2025. On June 30, 2025, Dan Sullivan voted no on a motion to send the bill back to committee with changes that would remove provisions stripping people of federal benefits by methods including but not limited to the creation of new administrative burdens and paperwork requirements. It failed 48 to 52. The same day he voted no on a motion to strike any provision that cuts funding for Medicaid, which failed 47 to 53. The work requirement exempts people who are blind or disabled only if the state verifies it, and CMS projects that enrollment would be reduced by 2.3 million individuals in FY 2027. Medicaid home care for people with disabilities is largely an optional Medicaid benefit, which makes these programs more vulnerable to reductions during periods of state or federal budget constraints, the Bipartisan Policy Center found.
- Sullivan Cast One of the 50 Votes for the Medicaid Work Requirement That Is Already Cutting Off Disabled Adults. On July 1, 2025, Sullivan voted yes on H.R. 1, which passed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote. It requires most adults in the Medicaid expansion group to report 80 hours of work a month by January 1, 2027, unless they prove an exemption such as being medically frail. Nebraska started first: its figures showed over 1,000 people lost or were denied Medicaid coverage under the new requirements between May and August 2026, and one 64-year-old man said he lost his Medicaid coverage while undergoing treatment for kidney cancer even though he cannot work, Human Rights Watch reported.
- Sullivan Voted Against Repealing Six-Month Medicaid Eligibility Checks in January 2026. On January 30, 2026, Sullivan voted no on an amendment that would have repealed the law's six-month Medicaid eligibility checks and its new cost sharing. It needed 60 votes and failed 49 to 51. CBO estimated the six-month checks alone will increase the number of people who are uninsured by 700,000 in 2034, according to KFF.
- Sullivan Voted Against a Budget Pledge to Protect Medicaid for People With Disabilities in April 2025. On April 4, 2025, Sullivan voted no on an amendment to the budget resolution for a reserve fund to prevent cuts to Medicaid enrollment or benefits for seniors, children, families and individuals with disabilities. It was rejected 48 to 51. The budget resolution opened the way for the 2025 law, which reduce federal spending on health care by over $1 trillion, according to KFF's summary of CBO.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm Mehmet Oz, Whose Agency Narrowed Who Counts as Medically Frail. On April 3, 2025, Sullivan voted to confirm Mehmet Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; he was confirmed 53 to 45. Oz's agency issued the June 2026 rule carrying out the work requirement, and Georgetown's Center for Children and Families found that under it Fewer people will qualify as medically frail and that verifying exemptions will place an enormous administrative burden on individuals, health care providers, health plans, and states. Veterans are exempt only if rated at total (100%) disability.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm the Justice Department Leaders Who Abandoned Disability Integration Enforcement. Sullivan voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general on February 4, 2025, Harmeet Dhillon as head of the Civil Rights Division on April 3, 2025, Todd Blanche as deputy attorney general on March 5, 2025 and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary on February 13, 2025. The Civil Rights Division's own data showed an approximately 85 percent reduction of disability-related enforcement activity in its first year, according to Red Line for Civil Rights. In June 2026, with Blanche as acting attorney general, the department said the disability laws impose no legal duty on states to provide integrated services. Then the government, defending Kennedy's department, switched sides and agreed with the states that the requirement should be undone, and on September 23, 2026 a court vacated the entire integration provision which includes specific prohibitions against segregation and institutionalization from the department's Section 504 rule. Disabled people may have to go to greater lengths, including suing states, to get services at home, the Florida Phoenix reported.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm the Social Security and Education Chiefs Whose Agencies Let Disability Cases Pile Up. Sullivan voted to confirm Frank Bisignano as Social Security commissioner on May 6, 2025 and Linda McMahon as education secretary on March 3, 2025. Disability hearings waiting for a decision rose by more than 73,000 from January 2025 to February 2026, to nearly 344,000, and SSA lost 13 percent of its administrative law judges, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found. At the Education Department, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights dismissed more than 6,000 complaints without an investigation, and Seven of its 11 regional offices were shuttered and, in all, it lost nearly half its staff.
What the Disability Policies Dan Sullivan Backed Mean for Alaskans
- Medicaid paperwork. The Alaska Department of Health projects that (18,905 individuals) would need to submit paperwork to manually report under the work requirement, including Alaskans with disabilities who must document an exemption, and that between 9,452 and 13,611 could lose coverage.
- Home care waiting list. In 2026, 734 Alaskans were on the waiting list for Medicaid home and community care, according to KFF, before the 2025 law's Medicaid cuts take full effect.
- Disability benefits. Alaska had 9,901 disabled workers drawing Social Security disability benefits at the end of 2024, who depend on the hearing system that now has nearly 344,000 cases waiting nationwide.
- Integration rule. The Section 504 integration protections the court erased in September 2026 covered programs funded by the health department in every state, including Alaska. The Justice Department, representing Kennedy's department, joined Texas, Alaska, Montana, Louisiana, and Florida in asking the court to vacate them, with Alaska taking part through its state attorney general.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dan Sullivan on Disability rights
What is Dan Sullivan's record on disability rights under Trump?
Dan Sullivan voted against removing the 2025 law's new Medicaid paperwork requirements and against striking its Medicaid cuts, then voted for the law, whose work requirement is already cutting off disabled adults in Nebraska. He voted to confirm Mehmet Oz, whose agency narrowed who counts as medically frail, and the Justice Department and health officials who cut disability enforcement and helped erase the federal rule against unnecessary institutionalization.
Are people with disabilities exempt from the Medicaid work requirement Dan Sullivan voted for?
Dan Sullivan voted for a law that exempts people who are medically frail, but they must prove it, and the rule from Oz's agency means Fewer people will qualify as medically frail, Georgetown researchers found. In Nebraska, a man in treatment for kidney cancer lost his Medicaid coverage under the requirement.
What happened to the Section 504 integration rule?
On September 23, 2026, a court vacated the integration provisions of the federal Section 504 rule after the Justice Department, led by officials Dan Sullivan voted to confirm, switched sides and asked the court to undo them. Section 504 itself and the Supreme Court's Olmstead decision still stand, but the rule's specific prohibitions against segregation and institutionalization are gone.
Last updated: 2026-10-25