On July 17, 2025, Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan voted for the Rescissions Act, which the White House sent to Congress to formalize DOGE's cuts, after voting the day before against amendments to strike or limit its $1.1 billion cut to public broadcasting, including one from Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. The cut took more than $20 million from Alaska's 27 public radio and television stations. On January 30, 2026, Sullivan voted against an amendment to bar the late-year "pocket rescissions" the budget office then used in September 2026 to cancel $810 million Congress had approved.
On April 23, 2026, Sullivan cast one of the votes that killed, on a 49 to 49 tie, a budget amendment to make room for requiring FEMA to spend its disaster money, after the Government Accountability Office found FEMA had illegally withheld funds. He also voted to confirm budget director Russell Vought, whose office carried out the pocket rescissions, and Kristi Noem, whose department withheld and cancelled FEMA grants.
Dan Sullivan's Votes on Rescissions, Impoundments and the Budget Office
- Sullivan Voted for the Rescissions Package That Cut Alaska Public Radio in July 2025. On July 16, 2025, Dan Sullivan voted no on an amendment to strike the rescission of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which failed 47 to 52, and voted no on a motion to protect stations licensed to or primarily serve rural areas or Tribal communities, which lost 48 to 51. On July 17 he voted against Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski's amendment to replace the public broadcasting cut with a much smaller one, which was rejected 47 to 51, and then voted yes on final passage. The bill passed 51 to 48 after the White House sent it to Congress to formalize cuts made by DOGE. The law took back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting through fiscal year 2027, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board voted to dissolve itself after 58 years. Alaska's stations lost more than $20 million in funding for Alaska’s 27 public radio and television stations, the Alaska Beacon reported.
- Sullivan Voted Against Barring the Pocket Rescissions the Budget Office Used in 2026. On January 30, 2026, Sullivan voted no on waiving the budget rules for an amendment providing that a rescission request may not propose to rescind or defer any budget authority that would expire within 90 days, the maneuver known as a pocket rescission. It needed 60 votes and failed 47 to 52. On September 25, 2026, the White House budget office used that maneuver again: The $810 million in the “pocket rescission” would have gone to refugee assistance programs at the Department of Health and Human Services and other programs Congress had funded. The Government Accountability Office wrote that The President may not force the expiration of budget authority Congress has already enacted and did not rescind.
- Sullivan Cast a Deciding Vote Against Requiring FEMA to Spend Its Disaster Money in April 2026. On April 23, 2026, Sullivan voted no on a budget amendment to make room for legislation requiring FEMA to obligate the money Congress appropriated for its public assistance and hazard mitigation programs. It was rejected on a 49 to 49 tie, so a switch by Sullivan alone would have adopted it. The Government Accountability Office had found that Currently available evidence indicates that FEMA has violated the ICA, the law that bars agencies from withholding money Congress appropriated, and that the Homeland Security Department terminated 362 grants and deobligated about $1 billion for those grants.
- Sullivan Cast One of the Votes That Kept $100 Million for the Budget Office in July 2025. On July 1, 2025, Sullivan voted no on an amendment to strike $100,000,000 that the tax-and-spending law gives the Office of Management and Budget for purposes of finding budget and accounting efficiencies in the executive branch. It was rejected 50 to 50, so each no vote was needed to keep the money. The same office, under Russell Vought, clawed back $4.9 billion in funding in August 2025 and $810 million more in September 2026 through pocket rescissions.
- Sullivan Voted to Keep ICE's Unspent Detention Money in January 2026. On January 30, 2026, Sullivan voted no on an amendment that would have taken back unspent ICE money from the 2025 tax-and-spending law, including the $45,000,000,000, for single adult alien detention capacity and family residential center capacity. It needed 60 votes and failed 49 to 51. The law gave ICE $75 billion in new funding on top of its annual budget, NPR reported. A Project on Government Oversight review, relayed by CorpWatch, found that CSI Aviation was awarded US$1.2 billion in contracts (a 238 percent increase over the previous year).
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm the Budget Director Who Canceled Money Congress Approved. On February 6, 2025, Sullivan voted to confirm Russell Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget, and he was confirmed 53 to 47. In August 2025 Vought's office withheld foreign aid until it expired, and GAO found the Impoundment Control Act does not permit the withholding of funds past their date of expiration; the Supreme Court allowed President Trump's administration to withhold more than $4 billion in foreign aid funding in an interim order.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm the Cabinet Secretaries Whose Agencies Illegally Withheld Funds. Sullivan voted to confirm Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary on January 25, 2025 and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary on February 13, 2025. GAO found that Noem's FEMA had violated the Impoundment Control Act by withholding grant money, and that Kennedy's National Institutes of Health had too: NIH violated the ICA by withholding funds from obligation and expenditure, GAO wrote.
What the Spending Cuts Dan Sullivan Backed Mean for Alaska
- Public radio. In Bethel, KYUK has lost federal funding that was up to 70% of its budget and plans to severely cut staff and some programming, NPR reported; the station is One of the few sources of local news and native language programming in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. On the Kenai Peninsula, KBBI in Homer and KDLL in Kenai each faced the loss of 40% of each of their annual operating budgets, the Homer News reported.
- Emergency alerts. Sullivan voted against a motion to make sure no station that takes part in the Emergency Alert System would lose funding as a result of the rescissions (roll call).
- Disaster money. After ex-Typhoon Halong, FEMA's denial of a larger federal share put Alaska on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in recovery costs, the Alaska Beacon reported, in the same years GAO found FEMA was withholding grant money Congress had appropriated.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dan Sullivan on Government spending
What is Dan Sullivan's record on government spending under Trump?
Dan Sullivan voted for the 2025 Rescissions Act, which cut public broadcasting, and against amendments that would have limited the cut, including Lisa Murkowski's. He voted against barring the pocket rescissions the budget office used to cancel $810 million in 2026, and he cast the deciding vote against requiring FEMA to spend its disaster money. He voted to confirm Russell Vought, whose office carried out the cancellations.
How did Dan Sullivan vote on the cuts to public broadcasting and Alaska's public radio stations?
Dan Sullivan voted for the July 2025 Rescissions Act, which passed 51 to 48, and against amendments to strike the public broadcasting cut or protect rural and tribal stations. In Alaska the cut took more than $20 million in funding for Alaska's 27 public stations, and KYUK in Bethel lost federal money that had been up to 70 percent of its budget.
What is a pocket rescission, and did Dan Sullivan vote to stop it?
Dan Sullivan voted on January 30, 2026 against an amendment that would have barred pocket rescissions, in which the President asks Congress to cancel money so close to the end of the fiscal year that it expires before Congress acts. GAO says The President may not force the expiration of budget authority Congress has already enacted and did not rescind.
Last updated: 2026-10-25