The end of the historic government shutdown this week was a mixed bag for Alaskans. Thousands of federal employees will be paid, food stamp benefits will resume, but no help is coming for the 28,000 Alaskans who will see their health insurance premiums skyrocket into unaffordability next year.
But no Alaskan will personally benefit quite as much as GOP U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan.
That’s because Sullivan is among the eight Republican Senators who will be able to collect more than $1 million under a secretive, last-minute provision that allows senators caught up in an FBI probe of the January 6 insurrection to sue the government. Sullivan’s phone records – which cover incoming and outgoing calls, but not their content – were part of Jack Smith’s investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol because he was on the receiving end of two calls from Rudy Giuliani that day.
Republicans have predictably used the revelations to manufacture outrage, claiming that the investigation was improper and “tapped” senators’ phones. Sullivan has amplified those claims, calling the investigation into what role the senators played in the January 6 insurrection “an absolute outrage” that spied on calls with family members.
Those are all claims that Smith’s attorneys say are false and baseless.
“A number of people have falsely stated that Mr. Smith ‘tapped’ Senators’ phones, ‘spied’ on their communications, or ‘surveilled’ their conversations. As you know, toll records merely contain telephonic routing information—collected after the calls have taken place — identifying incoming and outgoing call numbers, the time of the calls, and their duration,” Smith’s legal team said to Congress in a letter.
But that hasn’t blunted Republican efforts to profit from the invented controversy.
So while the expiring health insurance subsidies – which were the driving reason behind the shutdown – went unaddressed in the bill, Senate GOP leadership found room to insert the payback provision. It will allow U.S. senators – but not U.S. representatives or members of the general public – to sue the government for $500,000 each time their phone records are examined, along with attorneys’ fees and other costs.
That means Sullivan, along with Republican U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Cynthia Lummis and Marsha Blackburn, will each be able to collect $1 million or much more.
Graham, one of the preeminent Trump boosters in Congress, says he will “definitely sue” under the provision.
“And if you think I’m going to settle this thing for a million dollars? No,” Graham told reporters on Wednesday.
The revelations about the payouts didn’t come until late in the process of reopening the government, but it has been met with rare bipartisan outrage. Democrats argue it’s just the latest example of Republicans’ self-enriching tactics, while House Republicans have acknowledged it’s a terrible look for the party that’s being accused of being self-serving.
“These United States Senators are pathetically casting themselves as victims and propose to give themselves a million-dollar jackpot payday at taxpayer expense,” said House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, in a statement ahead of the House’s vote. “Their sneaky little midnight rider turns U.S. Senators into a protected caste that sits way above the law and the rest of the population, like their hero, the self-dealing President.”
However, even as bipartisan outrage over the provision grew, House Republicans and Trump pushed forward with the measure rather than rejecting it and sending it back to the Senate. House Speaker Mike Johnson has meekly promised the House will try to take up a measure to undo that part of the bill next week, but that will ultimately require the Senate and the president to agree, which is unlikely.
For his part, Sullivan has brushed off the claims of wrongdoing related to Giuliani’s calls. He claims that the calls were meant for another senator and that he didn’t listen to the messages until days after the attack.
Sullivan is up for re-election in 2026 and has seen his approval rating slump under Trump’s second presidency. Several progressive groups — including the 907 Initiative and Majority Forward — have launched media campaigns against him, highlighting his votes to cut Medicaid spending, end funding for public broadcasting, and support the president’s nonsensical tariff structure.
“Alaskans don’t need another yes man representing them in Washington,” said Aubrey Wieber, Executive Director of the 907 Initiative, in a statement accompanying the launch of the group’s “Yes Man Dan” campaign. “We are already getting swindled by the DC elite. We need someone who is going to stand up for us.”
So far, no serious challenger has lined up to run against Sullivan in 2026, but many political groups are pushing for Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, one of the state’s most enduringly popular politicians, to run against him. Polling suggests that she would have a good shot at unseating the Republican, especially after rising anger over Republican failures to address the cost of living and efforts — like this $1 million-plus payout — to enrich themselves.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Bluesky.
