Bill Young

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bill Young
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 10th district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 1971
Preceded by	Andy Ireland
Born	December 16 1930 ( 1930-12-16) (age 77) Harmarville, Pennsylvania
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Beverly Angelo Young
Religion	Methodist

Charles William "Bill" Young, also known as C. W. Bill Young, (born December 16, 1930 in Harmarville, Pennsylvania), American politician, has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1971, representing Florida's 10th congressional district. Young is currently the most senior Republican member of the House of Representatives. From 1999 to 2005, he was the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations; he gave up the position because of Republican-set term limits. He is currently ranking minority member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense; he was chairman of this subcommittee from 1995 to 1999, and again from 2005 to 2007.

Young is presently the longest-serving Republican Representative and second-longest serving Republican member of Congress (just after Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska).

Young was a member of the Florida Senate for 10 years before being elected to Congress.

[edit] Personal

Young was born near Harmarville, Pennsylvania, moved to the St. Petersburg area at the age of 15. He served in the Army National Guard from 1948 to 1957. [1]

In 1985, Young divorced his first wife, with whom he had three children, and married his current wife, Beverly, 25 years his junior. They met when she went to work as a secretary in his congressional office. They have had two children together, Billy, and Patrick, and the couple raised Beverly's son, Robbie, from her first marriage. [2][3]

He was elected to Congress in 1970 from what was then the 8th District and has been reelected 17 times. The district, which has changed numbers three times during Young's tenure (it was the 8th District from 1971 to 1973, the 6th District from 1971 to 1983, the 8th District again from 1983 to 1993 and has been the 10th since 1993) was once considered a Republican stronghold. However, it has become friendlier to Democrats in recent years. Bill Clinton and Al Gore carried the district from 1992 to 2000, and John Kerry narrowly lost it in 2004. However, Young's seniority and his long tenure on the Appropriations Committee have kept him in office over the years.

[edit] Committee Assignments

• Appropriations Committee
  • Subcommittee on Defense (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
  • Select Intelligence Oversight Panel

[edit] 2006 State of the Union address

At the State of the Union address on January 31, 2006, Young's wife was asked to leave shortly after anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was ejected for wearing an anti-war T-shirt. Beverly Young's T-shirt stated: "Support the Troops — Defending Our Freedom." She argued with Capitol Hill police in the hallway outside the House chamber. "They said I was protesting," she told the St. Petersburg Times. "I said, 'Read my shirt, it is not a protest.' They said, 'We consider that a protest.' I said, 'Then you are an idiot.'"

Young was angry about the way his wife was treated. "Because she had on a shirt that someone didn't like that said support our troops, she was kicked out of this gallery," Young said on the House floor the following day, holding up the gray shirt. "Shame, shame," he said. [4]

Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer apologized in a statement late that same day. [5] Young said he was not necessarily satisfied. "My wife was humiliated," he told reporters. He suggested that "sensitivity training" might be in order for the Capitol Police. [6]

[edit] Earmarks

In 2005, Young received 3,570 earmark requests from members of Congress, because of his position on the appropriations committee. He believes that requests for earmarks should not be publicly disclosed. In March 2006, Young spokesman Harry Glenn said "This has been the policy of the committee for years. It's internal correspondence from one member to another." [7] From 2007 - 2008, $167, 000,000 in earmarked funds came to the Tampa Bay Area. ^[1]

[edit] 2006 re-election

Main article: Florida U.S. House election, 2006

There was speculation that Young planed to retire rather than running again in 2006 [8], as well as speculation that if Young did decide to retire, his wife would run to replace him. In fact, neither happened; he was the only Republican to file in his district by the deadline of May 12, 2006. [9] He defeated Democrat Samm Simpson, a cable TV show producer and progressive activist, in the November election. Simpson was the only Democrat to file.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal

The Washington Post articles that publicized the scandalous conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center in late February 2007 included quotes from both Young and his wife. Young was quoted as saying "When Bev or I would bring problems to the attention of authorities of Walter Reed, we were made to feel very uncomfortable." Beverly Young said she complained several times, including directly to the commanding general, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley. She told the Post that she once saw a soldier who was lying in urine on his mattress pad in the hospital, and that when a nurse ignored her complaint, she "went flying down to Kevin Kiley's office again, and got nowhere. He has skirted this stuff for five years and blamed everyone else." Young and his wife told the Post that they simply "stopped visiting the wounded at Walter Reed out of frustration".

As chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee during 2005 and 2006, Young did not call hearings or otherwise engage in active oversight on the matter. At a hearing of that that subcommittee on March 7, 2007 regarding the conditions at Walter Reed, Young said that he was aware of patient care problems at Walter Reed long before the Washington Post exposed them, but that "We did not go public with these concerns, because we did not want to undermine the confidence of the patients and their families and give the Army a black eye while fighting a war." [10]

[edit] Association with Mel Sembler and Straight, Inc.

Young has long been friends with Mel Sembler, who was the boss of the controversial Straight, Inc., a drug rehab business that was closed for alleged inhumane conditions. Sembler later served as the U.S. Ambassador to Italy, and, when he stepped down, Bill Young made an earmark to dedicate a building to Sembler and named it "Mel Sembler Building".^[2]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• U.S. Congressman C.W. Bill Young official U.S. House site
• Bill Young for U.S. Congressman official campaign website

• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• C.W. Bill Young Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program DoD Bone Marrow Donor website