Breaking new reporting from The Alaska Current reveals that Dan Sullivan has “quietly backed efforts to rollback protections against forever chemicals” which is particularly notable given his largest stock holding, RPM International, has faced legal challenges over its use of cancer-causing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS.

“Dan Sullivan is a corrupt, DC politician and this is exactly the kind of shady, self-dealing politics that Alaskans hate,” said Alaska Democratic Party Chair Eric Croft. “By trying to roll back restrictions on these cancer-causing forever chemicals, Sullivan is putting the health of Alaskans and our environment at stake to benefit his largest investment. Alaskans will make sure he never gets that opportunity again when they fire him at the ballot box in November.”

This isn’t the first time Sullivan has used his position in the Senate to benefit RPM International’s bottom line: it was recently revealed that Dan Sullivan championed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA), which, along with the 2017 tax bill Sullivan backed, gave tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks to RPM International. Sullivan also backed tariffs that harmed Alaskans, then personally profited when RPM International raised prices on customers in response to his tariffs. 

Alaska Current: Dan Sullivan pushed to ease forever chemical laws after supporting them

By: Matt Acuña Buxton

October 9, 2026

• In 2019, Alaska Republican US Sen. Dan Sullivan joined a growing coalition of lawmakers concerned about the “forever chemicals” used in firefighting foams, which have been linked to cancer and don’t break down in the environment. 

• But in the years since, and especially under President Donald Trump, Sullivan has quietly backed efforts to rollback protections against forever chemicals—a move that is particularly notable given his family’s chemical company, RPM, the maker of Rust-Oleum, has faced legal challenges over its use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. 

• Sullivan has faced increasing scrutiny on how his decisions to legislate have benefitted his family’s company, of which he owns as much as $5 million in stock. 

• Many of his moves since the 2022 vote have been aimed at shielding corporate interests from liability over their use of PFAS chemicals, and he’s cosponsored several bills that would provide immunity to businesses, airport operators and even farms that used the chemicals unless plaintiffs can prove they acted with “gross negligence or willful misconduct.” 

• Proving liability for PFAS pollution is already difficult under existing rules, as shown by RPM successfully dodging a PFAS lawsuit over questions of whether the PFAS contamination could be traced. 

• But Sullivan’s most notable action in Congress when it comes to easing rules on PFAS chemicals is a change to the National Defense Authorization Act last year that lifted a rule that stopped military bases from getting rid of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by burning it in incinerators. 

• The ban had been put in place in 2022 following a 2021 report that found the US military under Trump had started to secretly incinerate the firefighting foam for years, despite having ample evidence that the foam was harmful to humans. The report also raised questions about whether incinerating a chemical that’s designed to fight fires was actually destroying the material or just spreading the cancer-causing substance out into neighboring communities.

• “The Pentagon is effectively conducting a toxic experiment and has enrolled the health of millions of Americans as unwitting test subjects,” David Bond, who oversaw the research, wrote in a 2021 op-ed.  

• But thanks to Sullivan’s changes, the Pentagon can resume those tests. 

• Alaska has hundreds of sites that have been identified for PFAS contamination, and clean-up efforts have been slow moving and met with skepticism, while other studies suggest the contamination is even more widespread. Kimberly Lake in North Pole, which is near a former refinery, has been closed to all fishing since 2019 because of PFAS contamination.   

• Sullivan’s office has tried to downplay the health impacts of incinerating firefighting foam. In a report by The Hill on efforts to soften PFAS rules, Sullivan’s staff defended his decision to bring back PFAS incineration, pointing to a study that claimed that incineration of PFAS chemicals is “99.9999% effective.” 

• Researchers who don’t directly stand to benefit from looser regulations have been more skeptical of the claims that incineration is a safe approach for firefighting foams. 

• The moves haven’t been popular across the board with Republican voters, though, and several have argued that public health shouldn’t be sacrificed for corporate profits. Anti-PFAS activist Diane Cotter, who voted for President Trump, told The Hill she felt let down by the GOP by their backtracking.

• “I’m so sick of seeing congressionals stand for photo ops with firefighters and then vote this legislation down or chip away at it,” said Cotter, whose husband Paul was a firefighter who had cancer but is now cancer-free.