Hoyer Floor Remarks Honoring the Life of Congressman Don Young
“I am honored to join my colleagues in paying tribute to my friend Don Young, who represented the state of Alaska in this House for 49 years. Don was one of three people who are senior to me in this House. There are two Republicans, Mr. Smith and Mr. Rogers, who I think both have the same seniority, maybe they're co-Deans of the House. But I’m the senior Democrat in the House and therefore had a long time to work with, to know, and to grow in respect for a crusty curmudgeon, who could be as tough as nails, but could also be as nice as you would hope for a fellow colleague to be.
“As a matter of fact, I was here working as – I wasn't an intern, because I was getting paid, I was at Georgetown Law School, working when Alaska became a state. The irony is when Alaska and Hawai’i became state they became states together, the theory was that Alaska would be a Democratic state and Hawai’i would be a Republican state. I use that analogy because who knows what we'll be 10 years from now or 20 years from now, so making decisions on a partisan basis is possibly not what we ought to be doing. But Don loved Alaska, and as the junior Senator from Alaska said today at the memorial service held for Don, and he was – he lay in State, an honor few Americans get, less than 50 Americans, Don Young got that honor.
“Many, of course, have commented on the sudden and unexpected nature of his passing. Surely, however, death had to take him by surprise. Because if he had seen death coming, death would not have stood a chance. Don Young was ferocious. He was ferocious for his constituents, for whom he felt a sacred responsibility and delivered so much over his 25 terms in Alaska. He said, I’ll defend my state to the dying breath, and that he did. When he was taken from us, Don was on his way home from legislative session, headed back to meet with his constituents and make sure they knew how he was fighting for them in Washington.
“Don was ferocious but he also was gentle. Those who got to know him saw that behind that often-prickly facade was a tender and warm-hearted man who cared about his country, and cared about his colleagues, and cared most of all about his family. The love he felt for his family, for his constituents and for the institution was an enormous – was as enormous as the state he represented.
“I particularly was close to Don and fond of Don because he loved this institution. I love this institution. It's one of the unique institutions of the world where the only way you can get here is your neighbors choose you. Nobody can appoint you, no governor can appoint you, no Majority here can appoint you, you come here because your neighbors respect you. And Don's neighbors, 25 times, over almost 50 years, got the opportunity to say, ‘Don Young, we trust you and we want you to go to Washington to represent us.’ Only one Member of Congress from Alaska. They have two Senators but only one Representative. What an honor for all of us to be selected by our neighbors to represent and articulate their voice in the halls of this Congress.
“I respected Don and he respected me and on many occasions we stood and worked together on behalf of this institution and on behalf of the Members of this institution. He had a passion, as we all know, for decorum. Known for tapping his cane and urging whoever sat in the Chair to call the vote. ‘Regular order!’ would come from the seat at the back of the chamber. Because he felt that the Chair was not bringing the vote to a close soon enough and he was right. Didn't mean that the Chair closed the vote because we were waiting for other people to come because they were late, never Don Young.
“When the bell rang, Don Young answered the call. He never sat in the corner. He was always ready for the fight. He was always ready for the challenge. When votes were called, and we weren't always on the same side, that's what's written here. We were very rarely on the same side. But we were always on the same side when it came to Members, this institution, and the American people. In fact, we were much more on the opposite side, did not mean we were on the opposite side from a personal standpoint. I hope all of us could learn that lesson.
“We're all chosen by our neighbors, as I said, to be here. For that reason alone we ought to respect one another. I don’t mean that everybody does things that ought to be respected all the time, they don’t. But it is important to understand, particularly now, as Putin is testing whether democracies can work, Xi, the leader of China and Putin wrote a 5,000-page paper just about six weeks ago. Their premise was democracies cannot succeed because they cannot come together, they cannot make decisions in a timely fashion. Don Young was somebody you could go to in a very collegial fashion and if you disagreed, disagreed with honor on each side. But if you agreed, [you could] join hands to accomplish the objectives of that agreement.
“I always knew that Don believed he was doing the best he could for those he served. And he spoke and voted with his convictions. Whenever, as I have just said, we found common ground and common cause it was a pleasure working with him and knowing that alongside me was someone so fiercely devoted to getting a job done on behalf of his people and on behalf of our country. It says here, now Don is at rest. ‘If that's rest, I’m in real trouble,’ the Good Lord is saying because that guy is not stopping. He's still punching, he's still fighting, he's still yelling out ‘regular order’, and we are better for having known him and served with him. I join in offering his wife Anna, who I hug and gave a kiss to earlier today, and said how much I grieved his loss and shared her love for this extraordinary man. His daughters will miss him. Their families – his families will miss him. We will miss him and this institution will miss him. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I yield back the balance of my time.”
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