Around the U.S. Capitol, Alaska Congressman Don Young has a reputation for having a short fuse. He did nothing to dispel that notoriety at a Natural Resources hearing Thursday, where he seemed to let the committee’s Democrats get under his skin.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke came to the House Resources Committee to defend his budget, and the Democrats on the committee came to do battle. They questioned Zinke’s ethics, his spending, his stewardship of public lands.
Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., told Zinke that in several thousand pages of the department’s budget documents, phrases related to climate change appear just 31 times – and 21 of those are to describe programs Interior wants to slash or eliminate.
“This is a budget that prioritizes the profit that oil and gas and coal companies can dig, drill and otherwise wring out of our public lands, with no consideration of future generations,” Huffman said.
By the time it was Young’s turn to speak, he professed to be enjoying the Democrats’ show.
“It’s such a pleasure to hear them squeal and squall on the other side, after they stick it to us all those years with Sally Jewell,” Young said. “I enjoy every moment of it.”
Jewell was President Obama’s last secretary of the Interior. Young seemed to grow madder by the second, even as he was praising her replacement.
“We’ve got a secretary who understands public lands and where the wealth of this nation comes from,” Young said. “It does not come from B.S. It comes from the land!”
Young stared across the dais toward Huffman and the other Democrats.
“You want your social programs but you don’t want to pay for it,” Young accused. “The only way you can pay for it is utilization of our resources God gave us and what we should be able to develop in the right way.”
Young moved on, to ask an Alaska-specific question of Sec. Zinke. But it was only seconds after he’d been blasting the Democrats and he had trouble articulating the details.
“The BLM and their studies of the, uh, eastern … I call it the Interior, came down with a proposal that was not going to allow – or actually BLM was going to make a park out of it,” Young said.
Young meant the Eastern Interior Resource Management Plan. He thinks it’s too restrictive.
“Are you reviewing that?” Young asked. “I hope you know what I’m talking about. I know (Assistant Sec. Joe) Balash does.”
Zinke understood. He said Interior has no plan to scrap the document, but they’re looking into it.
Young’s spokeswoman, Murphy McCollough, said the congressman uses his voice to call out falsehoods about his state.
“It’s no secret that Congressman Young is an ardent supporter and defender of Alaska,” McCullough said.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
