Click here for full CREW article!

Click Here to Read More

Young opposed Homeland Security grants, stronger accountability. In 2007, Young voted against the fiscal year 2008 Department of Homeland Security authorization bill with $39.9 billion for programs including grants to states to prevent terrorists or other individual from fraudulently obtaining and using state-issued identification cards, as well as for developing more secure documents for issuance by the states. [VOTED NO on HR 1684, Vote #318, 5/9/07; Congressional Quarterly]

Young voted against adopting the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. [NO on HR 10, Vote # 523, 10/8/2004]

Young voted to strip overtime protection from millions of workers. [NO on vote to block the stripping of overtime protection: HR 2660, Vote #351, 7/10/2003] Young voted against applying the same rules to executive pensions as the ones that apply to non-executive employees; the bill he voted against would have restricted overly-generous corporate executive pension plans and golden parachute packages to departing executives. [VOTED NO on HR 1000, Vote #187, 5/14/2003]

Young voted against preserving Social Security benefits for retired public employees in Texas and Georgia, many of whom were teachers, firefighters, and police. [VOTED NO on HR 743, vote #100 and vote #101, 4/2/2003]

Young voted to give zero funding for implementing OSHA’s Ergonomics Rules instead of $4.5 billion. Young voted to give no enforcement authority or power to ergonomics rules submitted by the Labor Department during the Clinton Administration. These rules would force businesses to take steps to prevent work-related repetitive stress disorders. [YES on SJ Res 6, Vote #33, 3/7/2001]

Young voted to restrict the ability of patients who are damaged by negligent doctors to bring medical malpractice lawsuits [VOTED YES on HR 4600, Vote #421, 9/26/2002]

Young’s voting record was rated 21% by the AFL-CIO, indicating an anti-union voting record. As the federation of America’s unions, the AFL-CIO includes more than 13 million of America’s workers in 60 member unions working in virtually every part of the economy. The mission of the AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to the nation.

The rating was based on votes the organization considered most important and reflects the percentage of time the representative voted the organization’s preferred position. [Source: AFL-CIO website 03n-AFLCIO on Dec 31, 2003]

Young opposed repealing tax breaks for the oil industry.  In 2007, Young voted against shifting certain revenue from royalties and tax incentives from oil and gas companies into a reserve fund for alternative and renewable energies. [VOTED NO on HR 6, Vote #40, 1/18/07]

Young voted for the GOP energy bill that gave billions to oil, gas and nuclear industries. [YES on HR 6, Vote #445, 7/28/2005]

Young opposed Veterans’ health care funds. In 2007, Young voted against legislation that provided critical funding for veterans health care, including funds to enhance medical services for active duty forces, mobilized personnel and their family members and $1.7 billion for veterans’ health care priorities including maintenance at VA health care facilities like Walter Reed. [VOTED NO on HR 1591, Vote #186, 3/23/07]

Young voted against increased funding for veterans’ health and benefit programs [VOTED NO on HR 2528, Vote #224, 5/26/2005] In this vote the House narrowly defeated an amendment that would have increased by $53 million funding for various veterans’ health care and other benefits programs in FY 2006, while cutting $169 million from the commission charged with closing military bases.

Young opposed expanding access to the military’s TRICARE health insurance program to thousands of Reservist and National Guard members, even though 20 percent of all Reservists do not have health insurance, and 40 percent of Reservists aged 19 to 35 lack health coverage. [VOTED NO Vote to expand access to TRICARE: HR 1815 , Vote #221, 5/25/2005]

Rep. Young voted against granting a bonus to grant a $1,500 bonus to every American service member serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, including National Guard and Reserve forces. [VOTED NO Vote for bonus for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans: HR 3289, Vote #554, 10/17/2003]

Young voted against extending full retirement and disability benefits to U.S. Veterans who were wounded in battle [VOTED NO on HR 1588, Vote # 616, Nov. 7, 2003]

Young voted against increasing the funding for veterans programs, homeland security, education, health care, and infrastructure, and against cutting tax benefits for people earning more than $1 million, which would have paid for the increased spending [VOTED NO on H Con. Res. 95, Vote #82, 3/17/2005].

Read more here about Don’s record on veterans’ issues.

Young voted for sweeping changes to the U.S. bankruptcy system including making it significantly more difficult for individuals to get out of debt by declaring bankruptcy. In debate on the bill, John Conyers (D-MI) called S. 256 “the most special interest-vested bill that I have ever dealt with in my career in Congress. It massively tilts the playing field in favor of banks and credit card companies and against working people and their families.” [VOTED YES on S. 256, Vote #108, 4/14/2005]

Young voted for legislation that reduced protections for individuals in debt and favored banks and credit card companies, allowing more assets of bankruptcy filers to be seized by creditors. [HR 975, Vote #74, 3/19/2003]

Young voted to allow credit card companies to raise the interest rates on cardholders who pay their bills on time. This vote allowed credit card companies to increase the interest rates on individuals’ credit cards if: 1) the cardholder makes a late payment on another credit card or a student loan; 2) the cardholder’s credit score is lowered; 3) or the cardholder obtains a new mortgage or loan to pay for a house, car, or medical emergency. Opponents argued that credit activity which is not directly related to an individual’s payments on that credit card should not be used by credit card companies to increase interest rates. [VOTED YES on HR 2622, Vote #667, 11/21/2003]

Don’s rating sucked wind in poll 3, with his negative up to 58 percent. When it was fielded, he was in the midst of a close primary race—no one really knew whether he was a winner or loser, and he’d probably ticked off a bunch of Parnell Republicans to boot. Outside of that result though, the other polls have his rating very consistent, with a negative rating of 52-53 percent in each.

Click here for full story

Alaska Republicans need to kick things up a notch in order to win in November, according to the latest poll results released Thursday by Research 2000 for Daily Kos.

The poll showed indicted GOP Sen. Ted Stevens trailing Democratic challenger Mark Begich 50-44 and embattled GOP Rep. Don Young lagging behind Democrat Ethan Berkowitz by 13 percentage points, 52-39.

click here for full story

When Congress voted to investigate how a national highway spending bill on the watch of U.S. Rep. Don Young came to include a Florida project that lawmakers had not voted on, critics predicted trouble at the ballot box for the 35-year Alaska congressman.

Click here for full story

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Don Young spent about as much campaign money on lawyers helping him fend off a federal corruption probe as he raised for his re-election bid over the past three months, campaign finance filings show.

Click here for full story

Facing bad publicity and a dwindling campaign account, U.S. Rep. Don Young last year turned to the “AK Wolfpack,” a group of more than 20 lobbyists, including former Young staffers and retired former congressmen, with close ties to the Alaska Republican.

Click here for full story

With an election-year corruption investigation looming, Rep. Don Young has tapped his campaign war chest to pay not only his own million-dollar legal tab but also to hire lawyers for his campaign manager, who is also under FBI scrutiny.

Click here for full story

Rep. Don Young says the Senate overstepped its authority when it voted to seek a federal investigation of an altered earmark. “What the Senate did was unconstitutional,” the Alaska Republican said Wednesday. “No other body can request an investigation on another body.”

Click here for full story

Rep. Don Young has said he never allowed convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff to be an influential force over him in Congress. But now a trove of old billing records from two of Abramoff’s firms show that his team of lobbyists had more than 120 contacts with Young’s personal and committee staffs over 25 months, including at least 10 with Young himself.

Click here for full story

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Don Young has spent more than $1.1 million on lawyers who have helped fend off Justice Department investigations, according to a campaign spending report filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.

Click here for full story

Click here for full story

WASHINGTON - Over the course of 2007, U.S. Rep. Don Young’s re-election campaign spent $854,035 on legal fees, according to a new report filed on Thursday. And Alaska’s lone congressman still isn’t saying what the lawyers are doing for the money.

Click here to read more

We may finally get some answers about how Rep. Don Young (R-AK) managed to change the text of a bill after it was passed by Congress in order to benefit a major campaign contributor. In a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) today, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) called for the creation of a select committee comprised of both representatives and senators to investigate the miraculous change to the 2005 transportation bill.

Click here to read more