On July 1, 2025, Dan Sullivan voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed only with the Vice President's tie-breaking vote, after voting against amendments to keep the clean-energy tax credits that the law ends. Energy Innovation projects the law's energy provisions will mean hundreds of thousands of lost jobs nationally by 2030.
Sullivan voted to confirm Budget Director Russell Vought, whose office directed federal job cuts, and voted against budget amendments to rehire fired federal workers. Alaska lost a larger share of its federal jobs in 2025 than all but two other states. Sullivan told the Alaska Legislature in March 2025 that the Department of Government Efficiency was "making some noble progress."
He also cast one of the votes that kept the global tariffs in place in a 49-49 vote, and voted to confirm the homeland security officials who ran the $100,000 H-1B visa fee and a new wage-weighted visa lottery.
Dan Sullivan's Votes and Statements on Jobs, Federal Workers and the Economy
- Sullivan Cast One of the 50 Votes for a Law Projected to Cost 760,000 Jobs by 2030, in July 2025. On July 1, 2025, Dan Sullivan voted yes on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote and ends clean-energy tax credits on a schedule running through 2027 (Public Law 119-21). Energy Innovation projects "760,000 lost jobs by 2030" nationally from the law's energy provisions, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates the law raises federal interest costs by $405 billion through 2034 because it pushes interest rates up.
- Sullivan Voted Against Three Amendments to Keep the Clean-Energy Tax Credits in July 2025. On July 1, 2025, Sullivan voted no on amendments "to maintain parity for wind and solar facilities" (rejected 47 to 53), to repeal the termination of clean-energy credits (rejected 49 to 51) and to modify the end of the residential clean energy credit (rejected 48 to 52). The credits ended as written, and Energy Innovation's national projection counts the lost jobs by 2030 in manufacturing, construction and the utility industry.
- Sullivan Voted Against Rehiring Fired Federal Workers, Including Veterans, in Early 2025. On February 20, 2025, Sullivan voted no on a budget amendment for reinstating fired employees of the Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management, and on March 14, 2025 he voted no on making veterans dismissed from federal jobs without cause eligible for reinstatement. Federal payroll employment has fallen by 336,000 jobs since January 2025, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data compiled by FedSmith.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm the Budget Director and the Defense Secretary Behind Federal Job Cuts in Alaska. On February 6, 2025, Sullivan voted to confirm Russell Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget; he was confirmed 53 to 47 with no Republican opposed. Vought's office directed the federal workforce reductions, and Alaska lost about 4.5 percent of its federal jobs in 2025, the third-largest share of any state, according to the state labor department. Much of the cutting in Alaska came in the U.S. Department of Defense's civilian workforce, run by Pete Hegseth, whom Sullivan voted to confirm in a 50-50 vote broken by the Vice President.
- Sullivan Cast One of the Votes That Kept the Global Tariffs in April 2025. On April 30, 2025, Sullivan voted no on ending the emergency behind the "reciprocal" tariffs, which failed 49 to 49, so his vote alone would have changed the result. New York Fed economists found that nearly 90 percent of the 2025 tariffs' burden fell on U.S. firms and consumers.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm the Officials Who Ran the $100,000 H-1B Fee and the New Visa Lottery. Sullivan voted to confirm Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary on January 25, 2025 and Joseph Edlow as director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services on July 15, 2025. Their agencies adopted a wage-weighted visa lottery that the Department of Homeland Security estimates will cut entry-level H-1B petitions by 10,099 a year, and they enforced a $100,000 payment on new H-1B petitions from September 2025 until a federal judge struck it down in June 2026, a ruling an appeals court kept in place.
- Sullivan Praised DOGE as Alaska Lost Federal Workers in March 2025. On March 20, 2025, in his speech to the Alaska Legislature, Sullivan said DOGE is "making some noble progress" in reducing the debt. The Alaska Beacon reported in the same story that DOGE has orchestrated the firing of hundreds of Alaskan workers; the cuts included 13 positions at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, which supports the management of the state's commercial fisheries.
What the Federal Cuts Dan Sullivan Backed Mean for Alaska Jobs
- Federal jobs. Alaska's federal job losses in 2025 reduced Alaska's total earnings by $36.5 million, and state forecasters expect another 400 will be lost in 2026 among non-military federal jobs.
- Fisheries science. The February 2025 firings cut 13 positions at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, part of the federal science work behind fisheries management in Alaska.
- Teachers. While the $100,000 H-1B fee was in force, Kodiak's school district had more than 30 teachers hired abroad, many on H-1B visas; its superintendent said, "With a pen stroke, we possibly have ruined the future of education" in rural Alaska.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dan Sullivan on Economy and jobs
What is Dan Sullivan's record on the economy and jobs under Trump?
Dan Sullivan voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 1, 2025 and against amendments to keep the clean-energy tax credits, which Energy Innovation links to 760,000 lost jobs nationally by 2030. He voted to confirm Budget Director Russell Vought, whose office directed the federal job cuts that hit Alaska harder than almost any other state, and he cast one of the votes that kept the global tariffs in a 49-49 vote.
How many federal jobs has Alaska lost under Trump?
Dan Sullivan voted to confirm the budget director who directed the cuts, and Alaska lost about 4.5 percent of its federal jobs in 2025, the third-largest share of any state, by the state labor department's count. The Alaska Beacon reported that federal employment in Alaska fell to its lowest level since at least 1990.
Did Dan Sullivan support the $100,000 H-1B visa fee?
Dan Sullivan voted to confirm Kristi Noem and Joseph Edlow, whose agencies enforced the fee from September 2025 until a federal judge struck it down in June 2026. The record does not show a statement by Sullivan supporting the fee itself.
Last updated: 2026-10-25