[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.
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