Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young offered an innovative proposal for addressing the problem of homelessness in America on Thursday: Release the wolves.
According to the Washington Post, Young made the comments during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on the Interior Department’s budget.
“How many of you have got wolves in your district?” he asked his colleagues “None. None. Not one.”
“They haven’t got a damn wolf in their whole district,” Young added. “I’d like to introduce them in your district. If I introduced them in your district, you wouldn’t have a homeless problem anymore.”
Young was reportedly trying to make the point that the Interior Department makes budgetary decisions without consulting with the states those decisions would affect. He believes gray wolves should be removed from the endangered species list, and was ridiculing his colleagues’ efforts to protect the wolves.
A Young spokesman told the Post that the “analogy was purposely hyperbolic to stress the point that these predators pose serious threats to wildlife management and their listing has damaging impacts to local communities.”
The 22-term Republican is known for similarly innovative solutions for many of America’s most pressing problems. He once suggested that drinking with others increases the likelihood of domestic abuse, and suggested drinking alone as a solution.
“If you want to drink by yourself, you may do it. But when you drink together, the possibility of harm becomes greater every day,” he said.
He also suggested that lawmakers who undermine morale during wartime “should be hanged,” though that’s not a proposition he followed up on during the recent Department of Homeland Security funding fight.