[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 192 (Monday, December 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S7105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REMEMBERING DON YOUNG
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, it is nice to be here on the floor on a
Monday evening and to hear final passage by unanimous consent of a bill
to recognize and honor the life of our former Congressman Don Young.
Don passed in March unexpectedly after 49 years in service, and it is
always hard to figure out appropriate ways to recognize the life of a
true public servant, as Congressman Young truly was. So the Alaska
delegation--Senator Sullivan and myself at the time--really reached out
to try to find those ways that might be appropriate means of
recognition.
We can name buildings, as we are doing in this legislation, renaming
a Federal courthouse in Fairbanks after Congressman Young. We can
rename institutions, as we are doing in this bill and in recognizing
the Alaska Job Corps Center now as the Don Young Alaska Job Corps
Center.
And you can also do it through naming of monuments. And we have
certainly a fair number of mountains, lakes, rivers in the State of
Alaska that are pretty extraordinary, but it just didn't seem
appropriate and fitting that a regular mountain should be renamed after
the Congressman.
I had an opportunity to serve with him for many years. For, really,
all of my life I think he has been my Congressman. I have known his
softer side and certainly his rough and more explosive side.
And so as we were looking for something that might be fitting, we
looked not only at mountains, but we looked at mountains that continue
to blow their top to this very day and selected a volcano on the
Aleutian Islands that is currently named--I believe it is pronounced
Mount Cerberus, and we have, through this designation, designated this
volcano in the Eastern Aleutians after our former Congressman--fitting
tribute to a giant of a man and one that I think of every day. I know
Alaskans think of the contributions that he has made.
So in this simple resolution recognizing and honoring the
Congressman, whether it is institutions, buildings, or volcanoes, Don
Young's name will live for quite some period of time.
So I am pleased to actually be here on the floor with my friend and
colleague Senator Sullivan to recognize this evening.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Smith). The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I just want to follow on from what
Senator Murkowski just said.
Here is our resolution, S. 5066, introduced by Senator Murkowski and
myself, and we just want to thank our colleagues for agreeing to this
tribute to Congressman Don Young. We miss him every day, and as Senator
Murkowski so eloquently stated, we are naming buildings and job
centers--he did a great job on that--but it is great to be able to be
naming a volcano, very appropriately a volcano, for Don Young.
So good to be here on the floor with my friend and fellow colleague
from Alaska, and it is great to see the majority leader and my
colleagues agree to this naming.
Hopefully, we will get this signed into law soon--a volcano, a
Federal courthouse in Fairbanks, a job training center, all in the name
of our greatest Congressman ever--50 years, half a century almost.
Pretty remarkable and really an honor to be here on the Senate floor to
watch it get passed.
I yield the floor.
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