Update, Oct. 21: Rep. Young died Oct. 18 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, nine days after announcing his retirement from his hospital bed.

Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) announced he won’t run for reelection in 2014, instead stepping down after 44 years in the House. In Young, Florida residents have the longest-serving Republican lawmaker. Over the years, he rose to one of the most powerful jobs in Congress, chairman of the Appropriations Committee. He still retains the chairmanship of the panel’s subcommittee on defense,

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Before budget-cutting came into such vogue, and members of both parties still took pride in how easily they could turn on the spending faucet, Young made a name for himself as one of the best. Like many longtime incumbents, Young had a relatively secure seat and his overall fundraising totals weren’t particularly large, but they did show a pattern that reflects his years steering the Appropriations Committee and his involvement with defense spending.

In total, over the years, the defense sector contributed at least $1.4 million to Young’s campaigns — and $1.1 million of it came from corporate PACs.

Besides playing a prominent role in defense appropriations, Young is also known for his prodigious use of earmarks to bring federal spending to Florida, and in particular his district near Tampa. For the years that OpenSecrets.org tracked earmarks, Young ranked either third or fourth in the entire Congress for his use of them. Between 2008 and 2010, Young won more than $460 million in earmarks — almost all of it for projects in Florida and almost all defense-related.

Although earmarks were eliminated, Young, 82, has remained popular with the same groups that always supported him. In the 2012 election cycle, the top industries supporting Young were defense aerospace lobbyists and defense electronics — which combined to give him at least $260,000 or roughly a quarter of all of his campaign funds in the last election.

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Image: Bill Young shaking hands with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, via Bill Young’s Flickr.



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