Charles William "Bill" Young is the U.S. Representative for Florida's 10th congressional district, serving since 1971. He is a member of the Republican Party, and is currently the longest-serving Republican member of Congress. He was Chairman of Appropriations from 1999 to 2005 and still retains a seat on that committee. Young was born in Harmarville, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, in 1930. He grew up in a Pennsylvania coal town in a shotgun shack. His family moved to Florida when he was 16 where Young dropped out of St. Petersburg High School to support his ill mother. When he was... 18, he joined the Army National Guard and served from 1948 to 1957. When he finished his service at age 25, he applied for a job as an insurance salesman and ultimately ran an insurance agency. In 1960 Young was elected to the Florida Senate, where he served from 1961 to 1970, and was minority leader in that chamber from 1966 to 1970.
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