WASHINGTON — Alaska's at-large member of Congress, Don Young, filed updates with the clerk of the House of Representatives on Wednesday to correct, again, the details of his interest in a family farm that was left off financial disclosure reports for more than two decades.
Earlier this year, Young filed a notice with the clerk that he had not disclosed partial ownership of a family farm in his birthplace of Meridian, California. When his mother died in 1990, she left the farm to Young and his two brothers. Young's brother Russell ran the walnuts, beans and grain farm, and the congressman didn't collect profits off the farming.
But the details weren't quite right the first time around.
[Rep. Young's ownership in his family's farm, with gas leases, wasn't disclosed for years]
On Wednesday, Young submitted another update to amend the date that he acquired the property — 1992, not 1995 — and to include payments from a three-year oil and gas lease.
Young had reported income from a prior lease on the property that began in 1993. When Alaska Dispatch News asked about the discrepancy in the 1993 lease and his report of a property stake in 1995, his office said that he would turn in another update.
From 2001 to 2003, the lawmaker said he earned $1,368.67 per year for an oil and gas lease with Slawson Exploration Co., which he signed off on in 2001. The lease lapsed in 2004.
"Congressman Young's mother and older brother, Russell, took over management and business operations of the family farm following the death of his father in 1955. Don Young, who was drafted to serve in the Army and would later move to Alaska, never became involved in the family business," his spokesman Matt Shuckerow said in a statement.
"For all intents and purposes, it was his older brother's farm," Shuckerow said, defending the 25-year oversight. Young did report the oil and gas lease income in his taxes, Shuckerow said.
This isn't Young's first go-round of problems with financial disclosures. The House Ethics Committee issued a letter of rebuke after a 2014 investigation found that he failed to report nearly $60,000 in gifts between 2001 and 2013. The unreported gifts included numerous hunting trips and private flights.
Shuckerow rejected questions about impropriety of the oil and gas lease income given Young's position on the House Natural Resources Committee, which has oversight of oil and gas leasing on public, but not private, land. Most government oversight of energy law in the House of Representatives is under the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee, of which Young is not a member.
Shuckerow said that "beyond approving his brother's request for land use," Young wasn't involved in the decision to lease the land.
Since his ethics investigation, the congressman has been submitting his disclosure forms — crafted with help from his accountant and chief of staff — for review of the House Ethics Committee before he officially files them with the House clerk, Shuckerow said. It was through that process that he became aware that he should have disclosed his ownership stake in the family farm, he said.
Young, 83, is not among the wealthier members of Congress, a point Shuckerow made in response to questions about his overall assets.
"As a Private in the Army, a teacher, and state lawmaker, and now a U.S. Congressman, Don Young has dedicated his life to public service. Although he has been blessed with many things, including two daughters, 14 grandchildren and 1 great grandson, Congressman Young has not chosen a life of material possessions and wealth as some may presume," Shuckerow said.
In 2014, when the Center for Responsive Politics last ranked members of Congress by their estimated wealth, Young came in 275 out of 535 congressmen and senators, with assets in a possible range of $680,000 to $1.5 million. He fell behind Alaska Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski, who disclosed assets with a maximum worth of $4.3 million and $2.2 million, respectively.
Young's assets remain largely unchanged in his 2015 disclosure, with the exception of the funds he made from the sale of the family farm. It's a fairly short list: an account with the Denali Credit Union with less than $50,000; several life insurance policies, and a single investment fund valued between $100,000 and $250,000, on which he earned between $2,500 and $5,000 in dividends in 2015, according to his disclosure report. He owns a stake in an Arizona subdivision worth less than $100,000. And last year Young drew $9,537.96, combined, from two IRA accounts and his teaching and legislative pension from the state of Alaska.
Young bought his house in Great Falls, Virginia, in 1978, in an area where homes are now worth a great deal more than the sub-$200,000 amount he paid. Similar homes in his neighborhood have sold for $1 million in recent years, and newer homes there are on the market for as much as $4 million. He holds a mortgage — between $50,000 and $100,000 — on an Anchorage home and owns a home in Fort Yukon.