For over a decade, the late Alaska Congressman Don Young held the spacious Room 2314 in the Rayburn House Office Building, a short distance from the Capitol, accessible by the Capitol subway.
After the death of the Dean of the House on March 18, 2022, the office remained assigned to Alaska’s at-large seat, which was then vacant, except for orphaned staff, until September, when Rep. Mary Peltola was sworn in to complete Young’s term, and then she was able to remain in that office for the remaining months.
Then came the new term in January, and Peltola was assigned to Room 153 in the Cannon Office Building, where she has the House minimum of three rooms and a storage room, all of about 800 feet, and a shared bathroom down the hall.
Young’s office, 1,800 square feet with a much-coveted conference room and its own bathroom, has been turned over to Democrat Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, one of the most ardent gun-rights opponents in the House. Jackson Lee, who has served since 1995, has proposed a gun control bills that would create a national firearm registry, and set a minimum gun purchase age of 21. She has an 8% rating from the National Rifle Association.
The irony in that is Congressman Young was on the board of the NRA and in 2014 earned the organization’s highest rating — A+, for protecting Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
While Congressman Young was known for his bipartisanship in the House, Rep. Jackson Lee votes with the Democrat Party, as does Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska. Peltola and Jackson share almost identical voting records.
Before Young had decorated the Rayburn office with all kinds of Alaskana, including the heads of animals he had killed and a brown bear hide, 2314 was the place to find Wisconsin Democrat Rep. David Obey, who served 40 years in the House, from 1969 to 2011.
The current Dean of the House, Congressman Hal Rogers, a Republican from Kentucky, has served in the House since 1981. His office is 2406 Rayburn House Office Building, just down the hall from 2314.
Alaska went from having one of the largest offices in capitol complex, to a diminutive office on the main hallway of a building that is undergoing a massive renovation. But everyone in Washington, D.C. has to start somewhere, and Peltola, starting as a freshman Democrat lawmaker in a Republican-run House, is starting at the bottom.
