he was 88. >> congressman don young, you're a california boy. how did you get to fort yukon, alaska? >> i was raised on a ranch in northern california. my father was old school and when you turn 7 years old he puts you in the field and it was very hot and i used to dream of some place cold. he read me "call of the wild," and it was cold and trapping and gold mushing. i stayed in california, and i got drafted and went into the military and came back and it was still hot.

so i went home, my father had passed away, and i told my mom, i'm going to go to alaska. she said what for? there are nothing but a bunch of savages up there. i'm going to drive dogs, catch fur and mine gold. i went as far north as fort yukon, above the arctic circle, and i did that. i've had a great life, an absolute joy, and got out of the heat. and then i got elected. i 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 was in anchorage at that time building houses. i was looking for something to do. the construction season stopped in those days, and they said, i would teach high school north of the arctic circle, the first high school coach, i got out there, playing, i went up to the new high school, and i asked where the gym was and the superintendent says no gym. and he said, by the way, you're not going to teach high school, you're going to be teaching fifth grade. i just went what? because i had no idea what i was doing but i went into the classroom, wood stove, 25 students, all native students, and i fell in love with the students.

they are good students, and i taught fifth grade and sixth grade and seventh grade over the years and i just loved it. >> you started out your political career as mayor of fort yukon. >> one white guy, rest natives, which i thought was a pretty good stroke of business. ran a good shop. made a lot of decisions. it's the hardest job i have ever had, even more so than this job because you're there, you're not able to escape, and i had things like dogs, loose dogs were a danger to the kids and if someone let their dogs loose i had to eliminate the dogs and that was not a happy time at the next council meeting. so that was my first, what i called making hard decisions, and suffering the consequences of. >> what does it mean to be dean of the house? >> well, you know, i'm quite proud of it, in the sense it means a lot of time. i have been to through nine speakers, i'm now ranked 11th of the 11,347 congressmen since we've become a nation, i'm 11th in seniority. i don't get paid any more. i do get an office in the capitol so that's a pretty good deal. but it's recognition, that's

what it boils down to. i love my job. always have. there is no money in this job. but i like representing the state of alaska, and being the dean is an honor. only been 44 deans in the history of the nation, and there have only been -- i'm the only republican dean in 84 years, so it's sort of, you know, a first place when it 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 do you think of? >> he was the best president we've had. not -- he had weakness, they al have strengths and weaknesses, they are all human beings but he had a vision, 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. but he was paranoid, and very lonesome. that's sort of a weakness, when you're a leader, but he was a good leader in the sense he could see like china, with all due respects, he was the first one to recognize china, he had ideas and thoughts that a lot of people today may have had, but he set the groundwork for it. you know, like i say, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, you mentioned china. given 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 pink salmon. we have a series of salmon species, but pink salmon have little value. we catch them and we ship them whole to china, and then they

thaw them and they reprocess them and put them in packages and all kinds of different things and ship them back to us. they are one of the better, i would say, middlemen when it comes to fish product. it's a challenge. with four billion people, with the proximity and closeness, they will always play a major role in oil and gas. we have differences of opinion with government, but we think they will pay a major role in later years of our career. >> so you mentioned fish. are fisheries managed well and who does the managing? >> we have the best managed fishery i believe in the nation. it all springs from the 200-mile limit, the stevens act that started with me, in the house, passed the house, we have the economic zone, 200-mile zone where we control ii. the united states controls it. us that we control the fish and we have the habitat onshore and then we do the quota-ing the amount that can be captured offshore, up until 1976, there was a wall of light 12 miles off our shore of foreign fisheries,

and they were 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 fishery in alaska and across the nation but alaska is the number one fishing nation in the united states, and it's an economic boom to us, for ourselves and the northwest and seattle included. you know, it's one of the sideline stories about that, was when it passed, we passed -- the house passed it, the senate, and i had an opportunity with president ford and henry kissinger, he was going to land in fairbanks, and i had a chance to argue with henry kissinger and president ford six hours on that airplane, in their room, they have a room on air force one and we were drinking martinis, that was an interesting episode, it was the good ole days, and, of course,

henry kissinger was against the economic zone, he thought they would retaliate against us. i kept saying that will not happen. they need our species, they need our fish. they will negotiate in ways they can get our fish. and one of the proudest moments after he took off out of 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 as legislation goes. >> what about the endangered species act? what is its effect on alaska? >> it affects alaska more so because we're small in number of people 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 was proposed. by the way, it passed overwhelmingly. it was to save tigers and lions and exotic species. we didn't expect snails and bugs and grasses and grouse and other things. it's been misused by the environmental group that tries to stop any type of manned development. i disrespect them for that because that was not the intent of the act and i've always said show me one species that's been reclaimed by the endangered species acts and they say the eagle and it's not true. it was reclaimed primarily because of stopping using ddt, and this is a big argument. it will 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 that man is evil, and man shouldn't develop anything and if we're going to use something we'll buy from it abroad and i

argue that's not only selfish, it's really very self centered because we have ability, i believe the united states, we have wealth, to develop correctly, have we always done that? probably not. it wasn't expected. it is expected now but to say no to everything is to be terribly inappropriate because we do need things and we do have to have resources on the earth or you can't function, but they will try to stop everything. they can't show me one time where they supported any development of any natural resource in this united states of america. they can't do it. i challenge them to that. they will say no to everything, that's another story. >> in your 45 years in congress, what are you most proud of legislatively? >> well, legislation, i would say probably my proudest legislation is the pipeline, transalaskan pipeline. that was my bill, started in the house, and it's given the state a great deal of wealth. sometimes that's not too good

but it 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. the 200-mile limit, that's another one i highly cherish. the cdq quota program, it helped to develop our coastal communities along the coast, mostly native communities, it's been a very successful program. i could go on and on but i would say my biggest, best part of it, i've helped a lot of people individually, and that's been the key to my success, you know, communities, yes, but individuals. big time -- you look on my wall, you've got some major pieces of legislation on my wall which affected the nation, but mainly alaska. >> even though we're not society -- not set up to do this, your

office is a museum. >> well, some say i'm a museum piece myself being here 45 years, but there is a lot of history in the room. you have nine presidents, and then i have all of these animals on the wall and every one of them i've shot but one, you're not allowed to shoot a walrus if you're not an aboriginal. but i have history and stories to tell about each one, and i started hunting when i was 6 years old, raised on that ranch, my dad gave me pump action 22 and a box of shells and he said, son, this is yours, six, imagine that today, remember what you shoot we will eat. and the first thing i shot was a mud he and, -- a mud hen and it's the worth thing god ever created, my mother cooked it and i had to eat it. i never shot anything again that wasn't edible. it was a good lesson. >> your grocery store -- >> my total grocery bill with a wife, two kids and myself was a thousand dollars for 365 days. and that was usually sugar,

flour, salt, what i call the commodities but all the meat, all the vegetables, the fish, the birds, all of that, we caught, and we killed or we ate. and i ate well, by the way. it was one of the better times of being on a real good diet, if you want to call it a diet, a consumption of protein, i think, that's healthy, and that's what we lived on. i was a subsistence provider, what they call it. some ate a little better and some a little less, but i look upon the bush of the wild set as -- of the wild as my refrigerator. >> you got a 12-15 foot friend behind you. what is that? >> that is a totem pole.

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. but he could use it and display it for them but when he was out of the senate he wanted to put it in the museum. all of his pictures of his constituents were taken in front of that totem pole. he called me up one day after he had lost the election. i never saw him get mad, and he was extremely upset. i said what is wrong, senator? he said they are taking my totem pole. >> i said well, senator, don't take them out. put it in my office. when i take -- when i leave the job or die 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 alaska right now? >> government overreach. we passed alaska national land act. i was very actively involved. thousands of acres were set aside. it was never outside of parks preserves. it was never meant to be that way. when we became a state, we voted for statehood. congress agreed with the idea that we would get 103 million acres of date owned land. that happened 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 87 million acres

of land it in parks. about half of this date was set -- about half of the state 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 land around the state quite frankly, by its value. they always picked land between a and c and b. so we lost a lot of our state rights. that is our biggest challenge. we have accessible rights. we have a right to utilize our land without being told what not to do by the federal government. federal government overreach is probably our biggest challenge. a lot of that is personnel.

parks are my pet peeve. 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. partner with the people of alaska in the parks. we set aside land for the state for state parks. they had 23,000 people visit last year. that is the washington monument 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 ryan zinke he is doing a good job.

there is a tendency for congress itself, people and agencies are living within this bubble and they do not know what you need to do it and what harm we do not do. one area has been mined forever. they are trying to make them revegetate 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. >> 3714 miles between washington and juneau. >> from juneau, alaska, to my hometown is a little over 18,000 miles. -- a little over 1500 miles. host: how do you bridge that gap here in the congress? what do you tell young

congressmen? >> i have no problem with young congressmen. 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 are really chasing your own tail. 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. i very frankly not being egotistical, being chairman of two committees, when i said in that spot, when they wanted something, needed something, thought i could help them or not help them, they knew who i was, so members 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.. -- they all know where i am. 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 -- both the transportation and national resource 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 am a little fresh -- frustrated with, i call it the media hype. my job, i have served for nine presidents and i worked with every one 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. one of my biggest pet peeves, because i'm so old i have never twittered. i have never turned a computer on. i have never turned a computer off. some say we are old-fashioned. i hire people to do that. that makes me accessible. you can get hooked on that little baby. if you know what i'm talking about 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.

democracy. irs commissioner charles reddick says the agency should be done addressing its tax filing backlog before the end of the year. and that commitment while testifying in front of the house ways and means subcommittee on oversight he also spoke about funding and staffing shortages and tax assistance for small businesses hurt by the pandemic.