Young Must Repay Almost $60,000 for Ethics ViolationsBy MARY KAUFFMANJune 26, 2014
On June 18th, the House Ethics Committee voted unanimously to release publicly their subcommittee's investigative report expressing sharp disapproval of Alaska's 81-year-old Congressman for: 1) Young's use of campaign funds to pay for expenses related to his travel to hunting lodges and ranches for events that were not campaign related; 2) Young's improper acceptance of certain gifts from donors - including gifts of travel, lodging, and meals - that were not permissible under applicable House Rules; 3) Young's failure to report certain gifts on his Financial Disclosure Statement. Specifically the House Ethic's Investigative Subcommittee found that between 2001 and 2013, Rep. Young accepted gifts and expenses related to 15 of 25 hunting trips reviewed by the subcommittee that were not permissible under the House Gift Rule at the time, as well as non-trip gifts. For 2 of these 15 trips, only some of the expenses were improper, with the remaining expenses for those trips covered by one exception to the House Gift Rule or another. For the remaining 8 trips, all expenses associated with the travel were either improper gifts or improper personal use of campaign funds. Additionally, Rep. Young had not reported any of the proper or improper gifts or trips that should have been reported on his Financial Disclosure Statements for the relevant period. Among the list of gifts that Young was to repay were several flights on private aircraft, golf outings, hunting activities, lodgings, meals and $434.00 for a pair of Le Chamcau boots he received as a gift. The Committee noted that given the length of the investigation and the corrosion of evidence over time, that they could not recommend a finding that Rep. Young had purposefully or corruptly accepted any gifts. The Investigative Subcommittee (ISC) recommended that Young repay the full amount of the improper gfits and the improperly used campaign funds. This amount totaled $59,063.74. This amount included the repayment of $30,936.33 to his principal campaign committee, Alaskans for Don Young, and repayment of $28,127.41 to ten private individuals or companies. Young must repay the money with personal funds to his campaign and to those that gave him the hunting trips and other gifts. The ISC also noted that while it did not recommend that Young receive a house sanction for his actions, "his actions demonstrated a lack of appropriate safeguards and an inattention to the relevant standards of conduct". The Investigative Subcommittee did recommend the House Ethics Committee issue Young a letter of reproval. "I accept the ISC's report and regret the oversights identified," Young, the longest serving Republican in the House, said in a written letter dated June 02, 2014, to the Ethics Committee. He wrote, "I have made each of the payments recommended by the ISC. In addition, I want you to know that since 2007, I have strengthened my office's polices for compliance with the Code of Conduct so as to never have a repeat of these oversights." Young wrote in his letter to the ICS that he is proud of these efforts and noted "the matter in 2013 involved conduct that was simply beyond my control." Alaska's Congressman Young is the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives . He won a special election in 1973 to fill the seat of the late Nick Begich, who died in a plane crash just before the 1972 election. Young has won reelection ever since.
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