Sullivan visits Homer during weeklong Alaska tour

On recess from regular congressional session for Memorial Day, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, took a weeklong whirlwind tour of his representative state. On a Friday, May 30, visit to Homer, he met with City of Homer leadership on the Homer Harbor Expansion project, sat down for an interview with Homer News, visited the Homer Senior Center and finished the day with a community meeting at the Virl “Pa” Haga VFW Post 10221 in Anchor Point.

Part of his week, he said, involved hosting Gen. Dan Caine, the recently appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces and the principal military advisor to the president — and briefing him on Alaska and the state’s strategic importance.

“A big part of my job is to bring up top federal officials, admirals, generals, cabinet members, to see Alaska and meet Alaskans and really understand our issues,” he said.

Sullivan noted Friday that over the weekend he would also host three cabinet members — Doug Burgum, secretary of the interior and chair of the National Energy Dominance Council; Chris Wright, secretary of energy and NEDC vice chair; and Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency — during an Alaska Resources Roundtable discussion held in Anchorage Sunday. He was slated to finish off his tour by traveling to Utqiagvik and the North Slope before returning to Washington, D.C., Monday night.

Local issues

Sullivan said he had a “really, really good meeting” with city leadership, including Homer port and harbor staff, and the Homer Chamber of Commerce on the Homer Harbor expansion project, which according to Port Director Bryan Hawkins involved discussion on current design options, beneficial uses of dredge materials and advocating for federal funding assistance with potential additional project costs that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would otherwise designate as “local.”

“I think that this project is well on its way,” Sullivan said.

He pointed to President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order, “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” which contains a provision for the assistant secretary of the army for civil works to “immediately review, revise or rescind any agency action that may in any way hinder, slow or otherwise delay any critical project in the State of Alaska.”

“That’s perfect for this (harbor) project, because it’s not just about money, it’s about how quickly you can permit something, especially on a project of this size,” he said. “This is why it’s always good to have these strategy meetings.”

Sullivan, who also serves as the chairman of the Coast Guard Subcommittee in the Senate, said he discussed during Friday’s harbor expansion meeting a potential opportunity for Coast Guard expansion, for which there is currently a provision in the upcoming reconciliation bill, also called the “Big Beautiful Bill.”

“There is going to be a huge recapitalization of the Coast Guard in that bill,” he said. “Right now, the number in the House — which we’ve been working on closely with them — is $22 billion, which is a massive plus-up for the Coast Guard.”

Currently, the U.S. Coast Guard budget equals between $11-12 billion, he said.

“So it’s capital projects to coast cutters, helicopters, icebreakers and shoreside infrastructure,” he said. “A lot of that money is going to be for Alaska, for building and buying ships and helicopters and things that we need up here.

“It’s just an opportunity, right, in terms of harbor expansion with the (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), but also with the Coast Guard.”

On the Homer Senior Center’s ongoing financial crisis, Sullivan — whose office previously aided the center in connecting with an IRS manager for the release of levied funds so they could make payroll, Homer News reported in April — said that he intended to “sit down with them and have a deeper strategy of how we’re going to work to help them.”

Around 20 demonstrators gathered Friday on the corner of Pioneer Avenue and Svedlund Street in downtown Homer to protest Sullivan’s actions in Washington. Bearing signs that read “Sen. Sullivan let’s nix your healthcare,” “No Medicaid cuts” and “You swore an oath to protect the constitution,” they hoped to catch the senator on his way to visit the Homer Senior Center for his private meeting with members and staff.

While sitting down with Homer News, Sullivan also talked about Alaska LNG, federal funding for public radio and potential effects of the Big Beautiful Bill on Medicaid and SNAP.

All about LNG

Sullivan said the Alaska LNG project — which, per a handout provided by his office, involves the development of an 800-mile trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to Nikiski, an Arctic carbon capture plant, and a new export facility — is “one of the top goals of the United States.”

“If we get that project moving, which I think we have a decent chance of doing, Homer is going to be a really important supply point with a deep water port, with road access right up to the Nikiski area, which is where the LNG facility will be,” he said. “That’s another reason, from my perspective, that you can say the harbor expansion project has strategic value even beyond the Kenai Peninsula. I will be making that argument when we’re talking to the Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard about this (harbor) project.”

Sullivan added that, while the project is often discussed as “LNG for our allies,” his priority is “gas for Alaskans.”

“This is first and foremost about Alaskans getting energy, and then if we can export to our Asian allies — Japan, Korea, Taiwan — that’s a huge geo-strategic benefit,” he said.

He also spoke briefly to ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and said “Asian allies” to obtain project financing through long-term off-take agreements, and said that he, Sen. Lisa Murkowski and former U.S. Rep. Don Young previously secured federal loan guarantees for the LNG project in a bipartisan infrastructure bill.

“That’s huge. There’s no other LNG project in the world that’s got the full faith and credit of the United States government backing it. Our project does,” he said. “And we’re looking at the Department of Defense’s involvement — if the DOD can help us with regard to a base load demand, getting natural gas to all our military bases, that’s also a way in which we can help finance this project.”

Federal funding cuts

Homer News turned to other issues and asked Sen. Sullivan how he intended to vote on the Trump administration’s request to rescind already-Congressionally-approved funding for two fiscal years for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

“We’ll see whether the rescission request comes to Congress or not — I think it’s still being debated — and what’s going to be in that rescission request,” he said.

Sullivan added that, while he’s always supported the CPB for its ability to help smaller radio stations broadcast throughout Alaska, he has been “critical of the content.”

“I do think the content of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting leans dramatically left, and whenever I’ve met with them, I’ve said, ‘Hey, you guys are getting taxpayer funding, you need to represent a much broader perspective,’” he said. “They don’t, and I think that that’s a lesson.

“If there’s a way to help these local radio stations stay on, that’s, I think, important. But when you have taxpayer dollars that fund content that is, in my view, decidedly left of center, that’s a challenge and now they’re dealing with it.”

In the wake of the rescission request and a coinciding executive order issued May 1 that would end government funding to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, multiple news outlets have reported on the vital role that public broadcasting — in Alaska, particularly public radio — plays in rural areas. Sullivan said that he’s looking for ways that the federal government can continue to provide funding for public radio “without the content component.”

Regarding proposed cuts and additional requirements and restrictions to the Medicaid and SNAP programs in the House’s version of the Big Beautiful Bill, Sullivan said that the Senate is “still powering through the whole bill,” and that what he will work on, as he has done previously, is “unique challenges” that Alaska has and “try to address them.”

“I don’t want to get too specific right now in terms of what those areas might be, just because we’re still trying to understand all elements of the bill, but as I do on all legislation, if there’s a unique Alaska component that’s positive for us or negative for us, we try to address it,” he said.

He gave an example of provider taxes, which is a strategy employed by most states — not Alaska — to help fund Medicaid programs while leveraging additional federal dollars. Sullivan said that the House’s version of the reconciliation bill included a “very uniquely anti-Alaskan provision” that allows states currently implementing a provider tax to continue doing so, but disallows states who do not implement a provider tax from ever doing so.

“I don’t think it was meant to be that way, but that was a very anti-Alaska provision — we’ll see, but I’m going to try to use that to our benefit,” he said.

Visit with veterans

During the community meeting held at the Anchor Point VFW, Sullivan said that he thinks the Senate will improve the reconciliation bill and that it “has the potential to be a great bill for our state.” He noted that the current version already includes “some legislative focus” on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Cook Inlet leases, but the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska “did kind of get left out.”

“We’re working hard to get that in the Senate version,” he said.

One constituent, a veteran, asked Sullivan if he supported “over 80,000 cuts” by the Department of Government Efficiency to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Sullivan said that, in his 10 years in the Senate, the VA has increased its employment by a third, and that VA spending has “dramatically increased on key issues for our veterans” but that there has been “zero progress” on those key issues.

“Bigger and more money doesn’t necessarily mean it’s more efficient,” he said. “I’ve been a big supporter of the VA, but I’m not saying that no employee of the VA can never be touched. I’m saying that a leaner VA is not necessarily bad for veterans.”

Another constituent asked if Sullivan has supported the DOGE cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Sullivan said no, he hasn’t supported those.

“On DOGE, when I’ve worked with these guys, they’ve said, ‘Hey, we’re going to make mistakes.’ They’ve tried to act quickly. When I see the mistakes that impact Alaska, particularly … as it relates to our economy, in cuts to public safety (and) federal agencies, we have gone and tried to get a number of those reversed,” he said. “We’ve been successful on some, not successful on others.”

A third asked Sullivan what his take was on trawling, especially since 74% of Alaskans, she said, in 2025 have said they support a federal ban on trawling.

“It’s definitely a challenge. The fisheries process,” he said, referring to the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, “is really important. What we’re looking at with research is how badly that’s impacting and we’re going to take action as we see it, but it’s a big issue.”

Sullivan invited his constituents to reach out to his office and let him know about other questions or issues they have.

Find contact information for Sen. Sullivan at www.sullivan.senate.gov/contact/email, or contact his Soldotna office, located at 44539 Sterling Highway, Suite 204, by calling 907-262-4040.

Editor’s note: This article has been corrected to state that the U.S. Coast Guard budget equals between $11-12 billion.