[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 6, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H2388-H2390]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING THE HONORABLE DON YOUNG AS THE LONGEST-SERVING REPUBLICAN 
                 MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise to mark a historic moment in our 
institution as Don Young, the dean of the House, becomes the longest-
serving Republican in the House's history.
  Is that a blushing Don Young that we see behind the beard there?
  On behalf of the entire House, Mr. Speaker, I congratulate 
Congressman Young on this honor and on your 46 years of proud service 
on behalf of the people of Alaska.
  Don Young has served alongside, from Alaska, six Senators and 11 
governors of his proud State. Photographs of eight Presidents signing 
his bills into law proudly cover the walls of his Rayburn office.
  Despite the length of time, every single day he serves here, it is 
clear that Don is passionate about his patriotism and about working in 
this institution to make a difference for America.
  As he said upon becoming dean--remember we celebrated his becoming 
dean not that long ago--he said:

       I love this body, I believe in this body, my heart is in 
     the House.

  Just over 2 months ago, Don honored one of the special traditions of 
our institution when he, as dean, administered the oath of office to 
me, a woman Speaker of the House. That oath began: ``. . . I will 
support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all 
enemies foreign and domestic . . .''
  As Don's name becomes further etched in the history of this House, 
his caucus and this Congress will look to him for leadership to protect 
our Constitution, to defend our institution, and to drive progress for 
the American people.
  Just so you know, my colleagues, in becoming the longest-serving 
Republican of the House, Don surpasses the

[[Page H2389]]

record held by the legendary former Speaker of the House, Joseph 
Cannon.
  Mr. Cannon once observed that, and this is a quote:

       The House is the most peculiar assemblage in the world, and 
     only a man who has had long experience there can fully know 
     its idiosyncrasies. It is true we engage in fierce combat, we 
     are often intense partisans, sometimes we aren't fair, yet I 
     venture to say that nowhere else will you find such a ready 
     appreciation of merit and character.

  Joseph Cannon, now surpassed by Don Young as the longest-serving 
Republican in the Congress.
  Don, thank you for being a leader of merit and character. 
Congratulations to you and your entire family on this milestone.
  Congratulations, Don.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from California 
(Mr. McCarthy), the Republican leader of the House.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Speaker for yielding.
  I too rise to congratulate Representative Don Young, the dean of the 
House, who today, as stated, becomes the longest-serving Republican in 
the history of Congress and, as the Speaker noted, has surpassed Joe 
Cannon.
  Don Young doesn't quote Joe Cannon, but he reminds me they named a 
building after him.
  Now, like me, Don was born in California. He got to know Alaska the 
way many of us did, he read Jack London's ``The Call of the Wild,'' and 
he moved there right when it became a State.
  As of today, Don has represented Alaska for 46 years, over 75 percent 
of the entire time it has been a State.
  His career is an important reminder of how young this wonderful 
experience we call America truly is.
  They lied to me during freshman orientation. They told me nobody had 
an assigned seat in this House. That is how I got to know Don Young. I 
made the mistake of coming in and sitting down right over by that door.
  I also learned another valuable lesson: Don keeps a knife.
  Now, Don has been a very effective Member. He has been chair of the 
Committee on Natural Resources, chair of the Committee on 
Transportation and Infrastructure, he has worked with nine Presidents, 
nine Speakers, he has numerous bills on his wall in between all the 
animals, but Don was prepared for this job.
  You see, when he was in Alaska, he was a riverboat captain, he was a 
mayor, but he told me the job that prepared him the most to be a Member 
of Congress, he taught the fifth grade. I don't know how good of a 
teacher you were, but I imagine it was good.
  But Don has been a mentor to many of us. You see, you can watch him, 
how he carries himself in conference, how he carries himself on the 
floor, but the way that he can mentor all of us is by the love and 
respect that he always had for his spouse. Lula was always next to him, 
and Anne is there now.
  He has been a Member of Congress, but he has been a father, and he 
has been a very, very great husband.
  Mr. Speaker, we all travel far and wide to be here to represent our 
constituents, but no one travels further, no one has the challenge to 
match Don. There are times, if the weather requires, he takes a 
dogsled, and it is no joking matter. That is his dedication.
  Don also makes sure this institution stays running on time. I noticed 
that last vote went a little long. I do like to monitor the difference 
when we are in the minority. On average, the votes lasted 5 to 10 
minutes less when we were in the majority, not by anything I did, but 
by the calls of Don Young.
  But on a serious note, Madam Speaker, I have always heard that if you 
find a job you love, you will not work a day in your life. It is clear 
that Don Young loves what he does, because he loves this institution 
and he loves the people's House.
  So to Don, we say congratulations on this incredible accomplishment, 
something nobody probably sitting here today will ever be able to 
achieve, but you did it for your passion, you did it for the love, but 
more importantly, you did it for your country.

  I thank you.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, as usual, the distinguished dean is eager to 
take to the microphone, but not yet. There is more to come.
  When the distinguished Republican leader of the House referenced the 
animals in your office, the menagerie there, I was reminded of one of 
your ties, and I shared this story with Members on the day that you 
became the dean of the House, now the longest-serving Republican today. 
But I saw you one day with a tie that really gave me hope, because it 
had an owl and an eagle and a baby seal on it, and I said, ``Oh, Mr. 
Chairman, I am so happy to see you paying tribute to these endangered 
species,'' to which you said, ``I call this tie lunch.''
  I knew you were only kidding, right?
  So, in any event, we have all had our stories with the chairman. We 
all respect and admire him.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the 
distinguished Democratic majority leader of the House for purposes of 
commenting on the distinguished dean, the longest-serving Republican in 
the House.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Speaker for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate   Don Young, who the minority 
leader and the Speaker have both indicated loves this House. The 
minority leader then added apparently you haven't worked a day in your 
life, at least that is how I interpreted it, Don. That was a liberal 
interpretation, you know, this side of the aisle. What can I tell you?
  We just lost the longest-serving Member of the House just a few weeks 
ago, and as I sat here, I thought, what a resemblance there is between 
the longest-serving Democrat of the House and the longest-serving 
Republican of the House: irascible comes to mind; caring about this 
institution comes to mind; faithful to principle comes to mind; blunt, 
speaks truth, not only to power, but to everybody else as well.   Don 
Young has made a difference.
    Don Young comes from Alaska, as all of us know, although the 
Speaker and the minority leader recognized that he came from 
California, but, Don, you have really made a difference, particularly 
for your State.
  As chairman of Natural Resources, you were focused like a laser on 
making sure that your State was treated fairly. I know there are still 
some things you didn't accomplish that you would like to have 
accomplished, and you have much time left to do that, but the fact is 
all of us have benefited, I think, from your honesty, your recognition 
of how the House ought to work, and, yes, your regular order, which you 
demanded and didn't always get.
  Of course, you took that with just very low-key responses, as I 
recall, walking by your seat from time to time.

                              {time}  1415

  But Don Young is an institution. Don Young is an institutionalist. 
Don Young is the kind of Member that makes this House, over the 
decades, work as constructively as it can, not as constructively as it 
should.
  Hopefully, we will follow Don Young and John Dingell's example, 
because both of them are lions of partisanship, but both of them were 
not only willing but thought it appropriate to work across the aisle to 
reach objectives that they could hold in common.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to thank Don for his service. Don and I have 
served together for 37 years. Between us, we have a little bit of time 
on us. I look forward to serving with him for some years to come. God 
bless him and Godspeed.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from 
Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), the distinguished Republican whip of the 
House.
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Speaker Pelosi for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, it is really a special moment for all of us to pay 
tribute to Don Young for this great achievement, being the longest 
serving Republican in the House, especially for someone who loves this 
institution so much. As we talked about John Dingell and had the honor 
of serving with John Dingell in the House Energy and Commerce Committee 
and seeing his passion, not just for the issues he believed in, in 
fighting for the auto industry and so many other issues, but for his 
love of the people's House, Don Young has that same love. In fact, 
anybody who knows Don Young knows that his secrets to longevity are 
always speaking his mind,

[[Page H2390]]

fighting every day to be a champion for the great people of Alaska, and 
always speaking his mind.
  On a somber note, Don started his career out of a tragedy. A lot of 
you remember that back in October of 1972, there was a plane crash in 
Alaska. Nicholas Begich and Hale Boggs, who at the time was the 
majority leader, went down in a plane crash. There was a massive search 
to try to find the plane. They never did find that plane. Ultimately, 
when they finally recognized that we had lost two great leaders, they 
had special elections.
  I get to serve and actually work every day in the office that Hale 
Boggs once worked in, the same office that Majority Leader Hoyer worked 
in as well, and I think about Hale a lot, as we think about Nicholas 
Begich as well. But I know Don was elected in a special election. That 
is when he came to Congress. Somebody else came to Congress: Hale 
Boggs' wife, Lindy Boggs, who some of you may have served with. They 
are probably too very different personalities, but they formed a 
special bond because of the unique nature in which they came to 
Congress. He shared with me some of those stories.
  It just shows you how sometimes our differences can, ultimately, 
bring us together to at least pay tribute not only to an institution, 
but to respect our backgrounds and how we all come here from different 
walks of life. Ultimately, it is our desire to serve the people who we 
represent.
  That is the thing I love the most about serving with Don Young. It is 
that he has such a passion. He fights for his beliefs, and he works 
with other people.
  We all know that, for 37 years, one of his great causes was to open 
up ANWR. Finally, we were on the White House lawn in December 2017 to 
have that ceremony and watch Don Young giddy as a schoolchild as the 
President was making that announcement, and then to see him still this 
day, and every day, come to work with the passion of representing the 
great people of Alaska and continuing to work with all of us on all the 
different issues that we come here to address.
  As we celebrate this great achievement, I think, as we all know, he 
comes and sits in that same spot and he yells ``order,'' and he yells a 
few other things, and he pushes us all to do our job in a much more 
efficient way. But how fitting it is that the United States' largest 
State has such a larger than life personality as its representative.
  Congratulations, Don. It is an honor to serve with you.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, it is clear from listening to the comments 
of the bipartisan leadership of the House of Representatives that, as 
Speaker, I can say, on behalf of the entire House of Representatives: 
Thank you, Don Young, and congratulations.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), the 
distinguished longest serving Republican in history in the Congress.
  Mr. YOUNG. Mr. Speaker, I thank Speaker Pelosi for those kind words, 
the kind words of the Republican leaders, and the kind words of all my 
colleagues.
  It was mentioned that I love this institution, and I do because this 
is the great United States of America, and we are representatives of 
our districts.
  The one thing I learned, during my 46 years, is that each one of you 
represent your people, and I respect it. I may not agree with some of 
the things you stand for, but I respect that you were elected by your 
people.
  I had the privilege of traveling a lot, and I still do, in Members' 
districts, not to campaign against them, but to find out why and how 
they are elected and what they stand for in that community. This House 
is the people's House.
  I have to sort of confess to one thing that was alluded to by Kevin. 
It is a fact that I was a schoolteacher to fifth grade students, and it 
prepared me for this job. There is some truth in that because, I have 
to tell you, I have timed it as a teacher. The average attention span 
of a fifth grader is 7 minutes, and the average attention span of most 
Congressmen is about 4\1/4\, because they are so busy trying to do 
everything they can, and they are so busy representing their people.
  John Dingell was mentioned. And, Debbie, God bless you for him. He 
was one of my dear friends. Everybody says that, but he was a dear 
friend.
  I met him in 1964 in my hometown of Fort Yukon. He was on the Fish 
and Wildlife Committee. He was 9 years a Congressman. I met with him 
and talked to him about an issue I was interested in.

  Of course, when I got elected, he came to me, and I went to see him. 
We had one thing in common: We loved to hunt. We hunted on weekends, 
because we stayed here. We fished on weekends. And we became dear 
friends. He is the strongest, frankly, Congressman I have ever served 
with.
  We had one thing in common: He respected my beliefs, and I respected 
his. I would say, John, this is the right thing to do. And he would do 
it.
  I think a lot of us here today have to learn that and quit watching 
the media. That person who represents that district, listen to what 
they have to say and support them. That makes this House work a lot 
better, frankly, than it is right now.
  This is nothing new. We have to do this for this country, to retain 
the control of the Congress to run this Nation. If not, we will lose 
our democracy.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank everyone in this room for recognizing my tenure. 
I want to especially thank my wife, Anne, who is up in the stand. I 
have been trying to get the State of Alaska to pay her because when I 
lost my dear Lu, I thought I was going to die. She came along, picked 
me up off the ground, supported me, loved me, cherishes me, and makes 
me want to come to work every day to serve the great State of Alaska.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank everyone. God bless them, and God bless America.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________