know him. that, when you meet him that comes across is humility. true humility. and as you know, peter, that's you often cteristic find in washington, d.c., and, but i think it's actually an characteristic for a judge, in particular, and that comes across, he's a good family man. so we'll have a good -- i'm not on the judiciary committee but hearings but good i think he'll >> alaska's only u.s. congressman is republican don young in this conversation, he talked about alaska and his work in congress. this is 20 minutes. s republican young. he's the longest serving member of the house, and in this c-span, he with talked about alaska and his work in congress. this is 20 minutes. >> congressman don young, you're a california boy.

yukon, you get for the alaska? >> i was raised on a ranch in northern california. old school and when you turn 7 years old he puts you in the field and it was dream of nd i used to some place cold. wild," me "call of the and it was cold and trapping and gold mushing. i stayed in california, and i got drafted and went into the back and it came was still hot. so i went home, my father had told my mom, nd i i'm going to go to alaska. she said what for? but a bunch ofng savages up there. dogs, catch drive fur and mine gold. went as far north as fort yukon, above the arctic circle, and i did that. 've had a great life, an absolute joy, and got out of the heat. and then i got elected. went bad somewhere. >> why did you choose fort

yukon? > north of the arctic circle, number one, i had my teaching degree and they called me up, i at that time ge building houses. i was looking for something to do. the construction season stopped and they said, i would teach high school north of first tic circle, the high school coach, i got out there, playing, i went up to the asked h school, and i where the gym was and the superintendent says no gym. nd he said, by the way, you're not going to teach high school, you're going to be teaching grade. i just went what? because i had no idea what i was oing but i went into the classroom, wood stove, 25 students, all native students, the fell in love with students. they are good students, and i taught fifth grade and sixth grade over theth years and i just loved it. >> you started out your as mayor of eer fort yukon. >> one white guy, rest natives, i thought was a pretty

good stroke of business. ran a good shop. decisions.of it's the hardest job i have ever had, even more so than this job you're there, you're not able to escape, and i had things dogs, loose dogs were a danger to the kids and if someone let their dogs loose i dogs and minate the that was not a happy time at the next council meeting. my first, what i called making hard decisions, and suffering the consequences of. it mean to be dean of the house? >> well, you know, i'm quite in the sense it means a lot of time. i have been to through nine ofakers, i'm now ranked 11th the 11,347 congressmen since 11th become a nation, i'm in seniority. i don't get paid any more. in the an office capitol so that's a pretty good deal. but it's recognition, that's boils down to. i love my job.

always have. there is no money in this job. i like representing the state of alaska, and being the dean is an honor. been 44 deans in the history of the nation, and there ave only been -- i'm the only republican dean in 84 years, so it's sort of, you know, a first comes to a lot of things. >> you mentioned you worked, congressman young with nine presidents. you've been here since 1973. if i say president nixon, what of?ou think >> he was the best president we've had. weakness, they all have strengths and weaknesses, they are all human beings but he very smart., happened to be a friend of mine, because i worked for him in california when i was going to college, when he was running for the senate. and very paranoid, lonesome. that's sort of a weakness, when you're a leader, but he was a leader in the sense he could see like china, with all due respects, he was the first recognize china, he had

ideas and thoughts that a lot of may have had, but he set the groundwork for it. they all like i say, have their strengths and weaknesses, you mentioned china. alaska's location, is china important to alaska? >> china has always been important. japan has been one of our major markets. china is becoming one of our bigger markets, because it's got more people. they need our product. primarily fish, which we have a market. people don't realize, we catch salmon. we have a series of salmon pink salmon have little value. e catch them and we ship them whole to china, and then they thaw them and they reprocess hem and put them in packages and all kinds of different things and ship them back to us. better, i ne of the would say, middlemen when it comes to fish product. a challenge.

with four billion people, with and closeness, they will always play a major role in oil and gas. we have differences of opinion government, but we think they will pay a major role in career.ears of our >> so you mentioned fish. are fisheries managed well and managing?he >> we have the best managed fishery i believe in the nation. all springs from the 200-mile limit, the stevens act that house, with me, in the passed the house, we have the conomic zone, 200-mile zone where we control i. the united states controls it. and at we control the fish we have the habitat onshore and we do the quoteering, the amount that can be captured offshore, up until 1976, there miles off of light 12 our shore of foreign fisheries, intercepting our

salmon and everything else. we passed that law, it's very much, i would say, probably the greatest example of success because we have a very strong alaska and across the nation but alaska is the number unitedhing nation in the states, and it's an economic boom to us, for ourselves and northwest and seattle included. you know, it's one of the sideline stories about that, was passed, we passed -- the passed it, the senate, and i had an opportunity with president ford and henry going to land as in fairbanks, and i had a chance henry kissinger and president ford six hours on airplane, in their room, they have a room on air force ne and we were drinking martinis, that was an interesting episode, it was the course, days, and, of enry kissinger was against the economic zone, he thought they

would retaliate against us. kept saying that will not happen. they need our species, they need our fish. theywill negotiate in ways can get our fish. and one of the proudest moments of r he took off out fairbanks, alaska, he was going to japan, he signed my bill, and so we have the 200 mile limits which i think is one of the greatest success stories as far goes.islation >> what about the endangered species act? effect on alaska? >> it affects alaska more so because we're small in number of and we have such a massive federal land and we have special interest groups that try to establish species that i don't think are endangered. i happen to be the last congressman that ever voted for the endangered species act. people don't remember when it proposed. by the way, it passed overwhelmingly. save tigers and lions and exotic species. snails and bugs

grasses and grouse and other things. the been misused by environmental group that tries to stop any type of manned development. for that ct them because that was not the intent of the act and i've always said species that's been reclaimed by the endangered species acts and they say the eagle and it's not true. it was reclaimed primarily ddt, se of stopping using and this is a big argument. serve its purpose if followed by the way the law was written. i say it's been subverted and it makes me very upset because i know intent of the law. >> and you call it weaponized? it's used as a weapon against us. we have a certain segment of our society in america that believes man is evil, and man shouldn't develop anything and if we're going to use something from it abroad and i argue that's not only selfish, very self centered

because we have ability, i believe the united states, we wealth, to develop correctly, have we always done that? probably not. wasn't expected. it is expected now but to say no to everything is to be erribleably inappropriate because we do need things and we do have to have resources on the buth or you can't function, they will try to stop everything. they can't show me one time any they supported development of any natural resource in this united states of america. they can't do it. them to that. they will say no to everything, that's another story. in congress, years hat are you most proud of legislatively? >> well, legislation, i would say probably my proudest the pipeline, transalaskan pipeline. that was my bill, started in the it's given the state a great deal of wealth. sometimes that's not too good has, and it's provided about 17 billion of oils to the united states. we had one shipment go to japan

so it's be good for the united states. limit, that's cherish.ne i highly helped quota program, it to develop our coastal communities along the coast, ostly native communities, it's been a very successful program. i could go on and on but i would part of it,st, best i've helped a lot of people individually, and that's been you know, my success, communities, yes, but individuals. wall,ime -- you look on my you've got some major pieces of legislation on my wall which mainly the nation, but alaska. >> even though we're not society p to do this, your office is a museum. >> well, some say i'm a museum piece myself being here 45 there is a lot of history in the room. you hit nineents and then i have wallf these animals on the and every one of them i've shot

but one, you're not allowed to walrus if you're not an aboriginal. but i have history and stories and i about each one, started hunting when i was 6 ranch,ld, raised on that my dad gave me pump action 22 said, box of shells and he son, this is yours, six, imagine that today, remember what you shoot we will eat. first thing i shot was a it's the worth thing god ever created, my mother cooked it and i had to eat it. anything again that wasn't edible. it was a good lesson. >> your grocery store -- >> my total grocery bill with a two kids and myself was a thousand dollars for 365 days. usually sugar, the , salt, what i call commodities but all the meat,

all the vegetables, the fish, he birds, all of that, we caught, and we killed or we ate. ate well, by the way. it was one of the better times diet, ifon a real good you want to call it a diet, a consumption of -- i look upon the bush of the wild set as my refrigerator. originally, ted stevens took it. the people who took it in 1995, the people said he could not take it because it was too expensive as a gift. he could use in hand display it for them but when he was out of the senate he wanted to put it

in the museum. he called me a one day after he >> they --e election i said well, senator, don't take them out. job or data, one or the other, it will go to your museum but i will take care of it for you. that is why it is here. >> what is the biggest problem facing nolasco right now? overreach.nt i was very actively involved. thousands of acres were set

aside. parks never outside of preserves. votede became a state, we for statehood. congress agreed with the idea that we would get 3 million acres of date owned land. but we always thought we would have access to federal land, which was mostly blm land. then the alaska national land act came with jimmy carter. they set aside 70 million acres .f land it in parks about half of this date was set aside for single use purpose. selectively picked land. the state is not one body of land. it would have 6 million acres

here, 50 million acres here, 10 million acres here. we picked acres, quite frankly, by its value. betweenays picked land b.nd c and so we lost a lot of our state rights? we have accessible rights. we have a right to utilize our what notout being told to do. very few alaskans use the parks. they are not really allowed to. they are used for tourists. i think it is incorrect. i think it should be parks and partners.

heart her the people of alaska in the parks. -- partner with the people of alaska in the parks. they had 23,000 people visit last year. monumenthe washington in one week. the only people who really use the federal land are federal employees. i think that is unfortunate and has caused a lot of hostility. i think his inky is doing a good -- i think ryan zinke he is doing a good job. itself, people and agencies are living with thinness bubble and they do not know what you need to do it and what harm we do not do. mind forever.een

they are trying to make them revegetation to the original state. let's go back to the original state. that is silly. somebody sitting here making up some ideas, foolish ideas. it hurts my alaskan constituency. >> from june oh two my town is a little over -- from juneau, alaska, to my hometown is a little over 18,000 miles. host: how do you bridge that gap here in the congress? what do you tell young congressman? youngave no problem with congressman. they all know who item. no one sits in my chair. there is a reason for that.

i started this 25 years ago because i found out when you are running around you j sharon tale. you don't really know what is going on, like i am talking to. if you said in one spot and watch, you know who is talking and whispers to this group or that group. you can find out. you learn more by being stationary. frankly not being egotistical, being chairman of two committees, when i said in that spot, when they wanted something, needed something, thought i would help board not help, they would come see me. so i established that chair as don young's chair. it makes me more effective. they all know where i a.m.. i am one of the few people that can express my thoughts very i won't say eloquently, but very loudly when i think you going

wrong. host: don young has chaired but the national resource and another committee. how is donald trump doing? rep. young: i think he is doing fantastic. for the nation he has not done what he has not said he would not do. i call it the media hype. for nine have served presidents and i worked with everyone of them. some i dislike more than others. but he is doing a good job with alaska. he is going to continue that. his cabinet members are outstanding. i've watched cabinet members come and go. overall he is doing it good job. peeves,y biggest pet because i'm so old i have never twittered.

i have never turned a computer on. i have never turned a computer off. i can have people to do that. that makes me accessible. you can get hooked on that little baby. in my business, and in your business you know what i am talking about. i wish he would not do it. but that is his style and he is entitled to do so. host: don young is the longest-serving member of the house. he is the at large member serving for alaska. thank you. announcer: n >> here's an interview with governor bill walker. this was part of our 50 capitals tour series. this is about 15 minutes. welcop number 38 on our 50 states capitals tour. today we are in the 49th state in the