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U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) Biography

U.S. Rep. Don Young has a long record in Congress of serving in top leadership positions. In the current 110th Congress, he was selected to serve as the Ranking Member on the Natural Resources Committee by the Republican Conference.

He previously served as Chairman of the Resources Committee from 1995 to 2001.

Rep. Young also served as the Chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee from 2001 to 2007. In the 109th Congress, he was the Senior Republican on the Homeland Security Committee.

Serving in his 35th year in Congress, Rep. Young is the third ranking Republican Member in the entire U.S. House in seniority.

Rep. Young Has Strong Interest In Natural Resources Committee Issues

The issues under the jurisdiction of the Natural Resources Committee are extremely important to Rep. Young and the people of his home State of Alaska, which is why he has chosen to serve on the Committee throughout his entire 35 years in Congress.

Nearly 15 percent of the entire State of Alaska is designated as national park land, which means that Alaska – as a single State - contains a stunning total of over 60 percent of our entire country’s national park land.

In addition, Alaska includes more than 80 percent of the nation’s entire wildlife refuge system.

Alaska also has the United States’ two largest national forests, with the 17-million acre Tongass National Forest containing more acreage than the total size of many individual states.

Alaska’s commercial and recreational fishery is extremely diverse and provides a variety of seafood products to countless American and international markets. The commercial fishing industry is the largest private sector employer in the entire state.

The Committee also has jurisdiction over all Native American affairs and serves as a primary starting point for work on bills relating to Indian tribes, individual Indian people, and Alaska Natives and Alaska Native Corporations. Alaska Natives make up a large percentage of my constituency and provide an important history and culture to our diverse population. In addition, they operate important corporations which are significant contributors to our State’s economy and workforce.

The 49th State is also rich in energy and mineral resources. Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay oil field once provided more than 20 percent of America’s domestic oil production, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge contains our nation’s largest untapped oil reserve.

By allowing careful development in a 2,000-acre section (about the size of Dulles Airport) of the vast 19 million acre refuge (the equivalent of 0.01 percent of the entire refuge), America could increase U.S. energy reserves by almost 50 percent in combination with creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs and billions in new federal revenues.

As Chairman, Young Achieved Numerous Committee Accomplishments

As Chairman of the Resources Committee from 1995 to 2001, Rep. Young passed a number of important bills designed to improve America’s national energy security, including legislation to provide for environmentally-sound oil exploration in a small section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This provision was subsequently vetoed by former President Clinton in the 1995 Budget Reconciliation bill.

In 1997, he authored and passed into law the historic National Wildlife Improvement Act, which established important guidelines and improvements for the nation’s 500-plus wildlife refuges.

He also authored legislation to increase U.S. efforts to protect a variety of endangered and threatened species including African elephants, rhinoceros’, tigers and neo-tropical birds.

He has also been recognized for his longstanding work to expand and improve the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Act, which is vital toward protecting and promoting conservation programs for America’s fisheries.

Improving America’s Anti-Terrorism Programs & Transportation System

As Chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee from 2001-2007, Rep. Young authored and passed the $285 billion national highway and transit legislation that expanded transportation funding in every region of the nation.

Immediately after the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks, Rep. Young played a key role in the creation of America’s new aviation security legislation that was signed into law by President Bush in November 2001. He also authored several other important bills designed to improve and expand anti-terrorism protections for our vast national port system, ships, public transportation, and railroads.

Rep. Young’s Alaskan Roots

Rep. Young is currently serving his 18th term as Alaska’s only Representative to the U. S. House. He won a special election in March 1973 and was immediately sworn into office during the opening months of the 93rd Congress.

Rep. Young’s home is in Fort Yukon, Alaska - a remote village of approximately 700 people located seven miles above the Arctic Circle in Alaska’s central interior region. Born on June 9, 1933 in Meridian, California, he earned his associate degree at Yuba Junior College in 1952, and his bachelor’s degree in teaching at Chico State College in 1958. Between earning these degrees, he served in the U.S. Army’s 41st Tank Battalion from 1955 to 1957.

Rep. Young first entered public service in 1964 when he was elected Mayor of Fort Yukon. Two years later, Alaskan voters elected him to the State Legislature where he served in the State House from 1966 to 1970, and later in the State Senate from 1970 to 1973.

Just hours after being sworn-in to the U.S. House in 1973, he found himself leading the historic battle for approval of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline, which transports oil from the Prudhoe Bay oil fields in northern Alaska to the Port of Valdez in Southcentral Alaska.

Often citing this as the single most important achievement in his career, Rep. Young stated, "Next to statehood itself, the most historical legislation passed that affected every Alaskan then, now, and in the future, was the passage of the pipeline legislation."

That same year, his colleagues honored him as the "Freshman Congressman of the Year."