Legislative Session 2026: State Senator Charles "Chuck" Younger

State Senator Charles "Chuck" Younger, Chairman of the Highways and Transportation Committee, joined the Extra Mile Podcast to give an update on the 2026 legislative session, including the lottery bill and MDOT Executive Director Brad White’s confirmation, and more.

Creators and Guests

Host

Will Craft

Will Craft joined MDOT in 2018 after serving on Senator Thad Cochran’s and Senator Hyde Smith’s staffs. Beginning in the Government Affairs role at MDOT, Will assisted executive leadership in matters of policy, stakeholder engagement, legislative affairs, and external communications. Since joining the Public Affairs team in 2023, Will is most often recognized as one of the “podcast guys”. The Award Winning Extra Mile Podcast is hosted by Will and Paul Katool, and produced by Drew Hall.

Producer

Drew Hall

Drew Hall is a media producer with experience in video production and journalism. He currently works in the Public Affairs Division of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, where he shoots and edits a range of content, including producing the award-winning podcast The Extra Mile. Drew holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Mississippi State University and has received industry recognition, including an AASHTO Best Audio Production Award. Previously, Drew worked as a photojournalist for News Channel 12 and Fox 40 News, developing his skills in visual storytelling and news production. Drew is married to Courtney Ann Hall, of Corinth, MS, and has one son, Jackson.

What is The Extra Mile Podcast?

Tune in to The Extra Mile presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Co-hosts Paul Katool and Will Craft take listeners inside the world of transportation infrastructure in Mississippi.

Will Craft: 00:09

MDOT presents the extra mile podcast. Welcome into another edition of the Extra Mile podcast. I am Will Kraft, in public affairs division. I am not joined by my honorable cohost today. He is on jury duty.

Will Craft: 00:29

So we got the short straw, or he got the short straw, excuse me, and had to go, serve serve the people this morning. Hadn't heard from him a couple days, so hopefully he's still tucked in over there. Joined today by, the good man from across the street, senator Chuck Younger. I know most of you, this he's no stranger to you. He's the chairman of our senate highways and transportation committee representing District 17 at Lowndes and Monroe Counties.

Will Craft: 00:56

Is that all of your county?

Chuck Younger: 00:57

And a little bit of Oktibahaw.

Will Craft: 00:59

Okay. Funny enough, this has been two or three times this year. We've gotta get the legislative website updated. We're missing some. Don't leave the good people of Oktibahall out.

Will Craft: 01:08

That's for sure.

Chuck Younger: 01:08

That's right. That's right.

Will Craft: 01:09

Well, thank you so much for being here with us today. How's everything going in your world?

Chuck Younger: 01:13

It's going good. It's going good. Last weekend, we took care of, two two different sets of grandbabies. My wife and I did, and we had a good good weekend playing with the grandbabies, four of them.

Will Craft: 01:25

You need another weekend

Chuck Younger: 01:27

Need another weekend because we have two more that live in Madison, so we need to take care of them one day real soon.

Will Craft: 01:33

Very good. Yeah. We got baby number three on the way. So my insurance agent told me yesterday, we just hate sleep. Guess.

Will Craft: 01:42

Can't argue with that.

Chuck Younger: 01:43

Back home though, things going well? Wife good? Everybody's good. My wife works for, congressman Kelly, you know, so she's she stays busy and every now and then we can help each other, you know, with fed fed problems and state problems. So, she calls me sometimes, and I call her and or either I'll just send somebody her way and give her a warning.

Will Craft: 02:05

It's good to have somebody on the inside there.

Chuck Younger: 02:07

That's right. That's right.

Will Craft: 02:08

How about the, the storm? I know we we've probably talked ad nauseam about winter storm Fern and and its impacts, across Mississippi. Did you guys get much of that?

Chuck Younger: 02:19

We missed it. We were very blessed and missing it, And I was praying and feeling so sorry for the folks up north. Oh, yeah. I was staying in touch with Senator Whaley and Senator Parks. Man, I just knew how bad they were suffering, Just the horror stories of what they were going through without electricity, without water.

Chuck Younger: 02:42

I'm on the water board where I live. It's Prairie Water Association. And you've got to have people don't understand it. When they pay their bills for water, it's to keep the infrastructure going. And of course, we have generators for each one of our wells where our tanks are where we live.

Chuck Younger: 03:06

And a lot of those rural water associations up there didn't. And when they didn't have water, everything froze. And when they got the water back going, leaks in all these houses. I guess plumbers are making a fortune in Oxford right They could be. I just hate it for Oxford and all of North Mississippi.

Chuck Younger: 03:24

We went to a wedding in Nashville last week, and all the trees that were just three quarters of the way up and then the tops out. Just devastation. Awful.

Will Craft: 03:35

So it's unlike anything I've ever seen. And, again, I know I'm I'm probably repeating myself from the last couple weeks here, but, I I've I've been through a a decent tornado. I was in Hattiesburg when that tornado hit and and tore our house and neighborhood all to pieces. I was pretty young when Katrina happened, but this winter storm, I've never, I guess, realized or thought that that just cold could do that much damage.

Chuck Younger: 03:59

Oh, boy. Bad. Just the freezing rain. Yeah. That's that's it.

Will Craft: 04:03

And and, again, to repeat myself a bit, but, you know, we have begun that cleanup process. It it it is a little bit of a slow pace, but rest assured, you know, MDOT and the MEMA, the forces out there, the governor's office, everybody's working full speed trying to get those numbers. Gotta get everything quantified and and organized, get that, refund, get some of that money back in. Just bear with us. You know?

Will Craft: 04:27

I'm sure there's probably plenty of trees still out around your place.

Chuck Younger: 04:30

Well, like I said, we were fortunate. We didn't get the freezing rain.

Will Craft: 04:34

Oh, that's right. True.

Chuck Younger: 04:34

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I've you know, the MDOT workers and then the the electric co op workers just you know, they were working through pure hell. Absolutely. So a point that was made during some of these conversations,

Will Craft: 04:48

I didn't think about you know, you got some trees falling and you have some power lines down. Well, you had a a a mixing of a lot of that where you had trees tangled up in active power lines. So, you know, you kinda had to wait chicken before the egg, which one did it first, cut the power off, then move the tree.

Chuck Younger: 05:05

Oh,

Will Craft: 05:05

yeah. I mean, yeah. A bind. No doubt.

Chuck Younger: 05:08

Oh, yeah. And then it stayed cold for so long. They couldn't they couldn't get any relief from thawing. Yeah. I think it was nine, ten days maybe.

Will Craft: 05:16

That's right. I mean, those were pretty chilly. I can deal with cold or I can deal with rain. I don't want cold and rain.

Chuck Younger: 05:22

That's right.

Will Craft: 05:23

And that's what we had. No doubt. Well, good. Glad to hear you guys missed the the worst of that, and certainly our thoughts are still with all the folks up north. I know that everyone's not out of the woods yet.

Will Craft: 05:34

I think probably everybody's power's back. I don't know, for sure, but we're still thinking about you folks up there. No doubt. Yeah. Switching gears a bit here.

Will Craft: 05:43

Legislative session. No surprise. Again, rocking and rolling. Two ish, two plus months in now. Only a few more weeks to go, really.

Will Craft: 05:54

It seems like it's kinda flown by.

Chuck Younger: 05:56

Well, I sure hope it keeps on flying.

Will Craft: 05:59

There's still much left to do. We've got the appropriations and a lot of the revenue bills still to finish up, but we have had some great things happen already specific to MDOT. One of those, lottery bill, which you worked on. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that.

Chuck Younger: 06:16

Well, Steve Massengale and I, he passed one on his side and I passed one on my side. But we went with Steve's because Steve's had the in casino betting where they were getting the money to all of that going to MDOT. So we went with his bill and passed it in the Senate, and the governors signed it. Of course, that was getting rid of the sunset on the lottery, 80,000,000, and then the rest goes to education. I wish it all would have gone to MDOT.

Chuck Younger: 06:50

We wouldn't mind. Anyway, we did get that passed, and we'll just see what the future holds.

Will Craft: 06:55

Very grateful for that. No. Certainly, that is a a a fight to be had. The education, you know, portion of that is pretty important. I get it.

Will Craft: 07:04

We're not coming after it. But, yeah, if if things ever change, we we certainly wouldn't turn that additional 80 away, I'm I'm sure.

Chuck Younger: 07:11

Yeah. But no, it's a big deal.

Will Craft: 07:13

I mean, it's a great thing for us, able to forecast that revenue. It's what we've talked about over and over again, having forecastable, dedicated revenue that not only MDOT but the construction forces out there can look at and plan for.

Chuck Younger: 07:27

And of course, we confirm the director of

Will Craft: 07:31

That's right.

Chuck Younger: 07:32

Our hero, Brad White. Number two. Absolutely. I tell you, it's great to know that Brad's over MDOT. All his connections with Washington, getting the federal match money, he's on top of it.

Will Craft: 07:45

Absolutely. No. We we we do appreciate and love Brad around here. And I will say, I mean, to be honest, as good of a leader as he is for MDOT, he is an even better boss and fellow to work for. I think that everybody here in this building appreciates him, and and truthfully, you've heard that he's only a phone call away.

Will Craft: 08:04

I mean, that dude maybe is available at his own detriment sometimes. You know? He he's ready to help and lend a hand or or lend an ear at any moment.

Chuck Younger: 08:15

He sure is. He's a good friend.

Will Craft: 08:16

We appreciate him. No doubt. And then it's something that goes back to, I guess, maybe when I first got here working on transparency and and accountability. You know? I I don't know that there was ever a lack of that here, but that's something he's really focused on.

Will Craft: 08:32

And I think by all, you know, by all accounts, think everyone agrees there's been lots of improvement there. Yes. We're transparent. A lot of oversight goes into things. No doubt.

Will Craft: 08:43

We appreciate Brad. Sort of looking ahead here, and, again, thank you. Thank you. Celebrate that that confirmation. But sort of looking ahead, our our big babies, if you will, kinda two two things.

Will Craft: 08:54

The appropriations bill and the capacity bill. Anything you're hearing on those two?

Chuck Younger: 08:59

Just, you know, we've we've talked about it in the Senate. Of course, we passed our version for the capacity bill for Madison. And then I think the next year it would be going to DeSoto County. Then it would go to the coast. And then the fourth one, '25, into Flowood.

Chuck Younger: 09:18

We passed our appropriations for that, and it's in the house. I'm not in the house, but I do go visit every once in a while. But hopefully they'll get it passed and we'll going.

Will Craft: 09:32

I know. You run to the other end of the hall and tell them how

Chuck Younger: 09:36

to No. I don't tell them anything. I do buy them packaged peanuts every year, so I've got some in the back of my car. I'm trying to bribe them with peanuts.

Will Craft: 09:48

Do what you can. Tough times out there.

Chuck Younger: 09:50

Give them a bunch of goobers.

Will Craft: 09:52

That's right. We'll take it.

Chuck Younger: 09:53

Whatever. But Steve and I work real well together, Chairman Steve Massengale. He's a good guy and a good friend. And we try to stay in contact as much as possible. We don't have any problems.

Chuck Younger: 10:07

It's some of the other things that go about. Education is one of them. Is a big problem every year, it seems like. But, hopefully, we'll get it worked out.

Will Craft: 10:18

Oh, yeah. I have faith in you guys. And, again, I've said this before, but a lot of times y'all are handed, gray and and asked to make it black and white. Here's this issue. Decide if it's good or bad or or ugly or or beautiful.

Will Craft: 10:32

And that is a lot easier, said than done. It is. And a lot of times, you're faced even briefly, I'll just mention, you know, talking about education. I won't get into the school choice debate or anything like that, but, you know, I've got teacher friends, who I would trust and and listen to their, advice on that issue that are on both sides of that. So I I don't have an opinion.

Will Craft: 10:55

You know? Again, one of those seems sorta gray.

Chuck Younger: 10:57

Well, I'll tell you, I didn't have anybody that was for it back home for school choice. Private school principals, I've talked to several of them, they weren't for it. The public school superintendents, they weren't for it. So, you

Will Craft: 11:17

know,

Chuck Younger: 11:19

why argue?

Will Craft: 11:20

Sure. And look. Hey. That's why you're sent to Jackson, right, to vote for the the conscience of of your people that that elected you. So, I mean, I think you're doing you're doing a great job.

Will Craft: 11:29

You're doing what you've been asked.

Chuck Younger: 11:30

Well, I'd say, you know, I try to do what my constituents want. And if they need help, whether they're democrat or republican, I

Will Craft: 11:37

That's right.

Chuck Younger: 11:37

That's I help them. Try to help them as much as possible. Sure. Sometimes it's a phone call that'll help them, and sometimes you can't help them. But anyway, you're always out there and you're trying to do the best for them.

Will Craft: 11:48

That's right. And I'm that issue is not going away, so we'll have plenty of time to to opine and and see what the next iteration is next year. The only other thing really wanted to mention, I guess, a couple of things, but, specifically, our appropriations bill, mentioned that capacity bill. That is the large additional chunk of money for those special projects, capacity projects, that are not necessarily accounted for in our standard appropriations bill. So we're much fingers crossed again.

Will Craft: 12:19

Appreciate all the work on that. We're looking forward to hopefully getting that capacity money and doing some great projects around the state. Our appropriations bill, you mentioned you've already kind of, you've done your part, worked on it, and looked at that. I I don't know that I've seen any numbers yet. There

Chuck Younger: 12:36

there's you know, I'll be honest. I'm not exactly sure what the numbers were. All these numbers are coming to me in my head. I think the capacity was 200 and

Will Craft: 12:48

Somewhere in that

Chuck Younger: 12:48

$2.28, $250,000,000. And the other the appropriations, the rest of it, can't I'm remember what it on finance. So I do sit in on some of the appropriations meetings, but I cannot remember the exact number.

Will Craft: 13:04

Just thousands of numbers right there. I can understand that.

Chuck Younger: 13:07

I just wanted to make sure my checking account's good, and I have to look on my phone every time to make sure I'm in the good. Amen. I understand that. And I think,

Will Craft: 13:15

you know, talking about our appropriations, the the really, I think the the request every year is to return that level funding and then the no earmarks, which you guys have have really done great with. And and, again, anything I've seen thus far, I have not seen.

Chuck Younger: 13:28

And I think that we're we're good with you know, we're level on that with Briggs. Senator Hobson does a great job.

Will Craft: 13:36

Yes, sir.

Chuck Younger: 13:36

He spends a lot of hours up there trying to get everything to the to the black, make sure it's in the black.

Will Craft: 13:43

So that's that's pretty much it. All I had for the legislative session relative to MDOT specifically that that I know you've been working on lots of other things, but anything specifically that you wanna mention?

Chuck Younger: 13:53

Well, locally in Aberdeen, Monroe County, there's a port there that's on the Tin Tom, and they needed some help. And I think the director, Brad White, was helping us get some money through the strategic multimodal fund, So I when we get a little bit of that money, we're going get some more federal matching money from what I understand. And I think, Amory also got some for a big warehouse, storage warehouse in the city of Amory. Of course, they need a lot of help. They've had a tornado that came through them a couple of years ago.

Chuck Younger: 14:26

I forgot what year that was But we're happy to see that coming into Monroe County. They need all the help they can get.

Will Craft: 14:33

Absolutely. We appreciate you mentioning that. Yes. Our strategic multimodal investment fund, it's a mouthful. A It is.

Will Craft: 14:41

Relatively new product with with MDOT, the the state legislature funds every year. And we're able to take those state dollars and leverage sometimes almost tenfold, or more in federal dollars and bring that back. For those of you out there, check out our our MDOT Facebook page. I think about a week ago, we had a long post on there about that. So focusing on that effort.

Will Craft: 15:03

I mean, yeah, just that is a great example of, you know, something that might not have been able to happen, but now being able to sort of leverage and pool those funds Yep. Now you got a great project going up there.

Chuck Younger: 15:14

Sure

Will Craft: 15:14

is. Appreciate that. Last thing really I have here for us, just wanna mention this to you and and those out there, National Work Zone Awareness Week. Something you've you've been a part of before. We have the the fallen worker ceremony down there, April 20 through the twenty fourth.

Will Craft: 15:32

So that fallen worker ceremony will be April 21. We'll certainly get you an invitation and and let you come. But as far as work zones go, I know that's something we we talked about earlier in the year. The the the bills, the legislation didn't really come through. Is that something we think we work on next year?

Chuck Younger: 15:49

Yes, definitely.

Will Craft: 15:50

Trying

Chuck Younger: 15:50

to When strengthen I'm zipping down the highways and I see workers in the cones up, the orange cones, reflectors on the cones, you know, you you slow it down. Those those guys are out there making our life a lot easier with better highways, so slow it down.

Will Craft: 16:07

Yeah. And it's easy. It's easy to get distracted, and and and there's a lot going on. Again, I'm hauling in two toddlers and and, trying to trying to navigate I 20 And 55 traffic. But, man, as much as I wanna get my kids home, you know, to and from safely, I want, I want everybody else to get home too.

Will Craft: 16:27

And those workers on the side of the roadway, man, Steve Massengill and I, representative Massengill, were talking. It's sort of like being at Talladega if you've ever been in a work zone.

Chuck Younger: 16:37

It is. I mean,

Will Craft: 16:37

those suckers flying by there.

Chuck Younger: 16:39

And I can't tell you how many people I pass and look over there to the right of me. Oh, yeah. They're doing this. It looks like they're eating pizza, they're talking on their cell phone. And I'm guilty of talking on the phone too, it needs to be hands free, and you need to be aware of what you're doing when you're driving.

Chuck Younger: 16:56

Absolutely. The cell phone can't wait till you get to wherever you're going.

Will Craft: 17:00

You can't. And it only takes a second. I sound like, you know, my grandmother telling me that driving, but it's so true. It is. You look away real quick.

Will Craft: 17:07

Real fast, I'll tell this this funny piece. I forgot all about this. This past weekend, beautiful weather. We were hanging out outside, wife and the kids, and, we've got, you know, one of those little electric riding cars.

Chuck Younger: 17:17

Yeah.

Will Craft: 17:18

Well, the the speaker, for whatever reason, the little speaker that's in it has went out. So I had just sat my my cell phone in the little electric car, and and so my daughter's riding around listening to music on that. And at some point, I guess, she she picked up the phone to to look at the song playing or something, ran right up into the flower bed. And she's she shopped out. She's like, I'm sorry.

Will Craft: 17:37

I was looking at my phone. And I was like, that that's how it happens. You know? She's only she'll be fine in August, but a good time as any to go ahead and learn that lesson. You can't be looking or distracted while you're driving.

Chuck Younger: 17:48

So That's that's that's very so true.

Will Craft: 17:51

It is. Happened to my own yard. Yeah. Alright. Well, look, senator, we appreciate you so much taking time out of your morning.

Will Craft: 17:58

Again, I know how busy you guys are, so we very much thank you for for joining us. Glad to be here. Yes, sir. With that, we'll wrap it up. Again, I will not, even attempt to give Paul's spiel at the end of the show there.

Will Craft: 18:10

He's got that thing rehearsed. But wanna shout out, Drew Hall, our producer for taking care of things over here. All the folks that are listening, appreciate you guys. Obviously, it's the only reason we get to do this. So thank you for that.

Will Craft: 18:21

Check out us, our podcast anywhere you get your podcast, Apple and, Spotify, all the all the links and platforms. We do appreciate it. And remember to drive safe out there on Mississippi High Ways.