ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Republican Rep. Bill Young, Florida’s longest-serving member of Congress and a defense hawk who was influential on military spending during his 43 years in Washington, died Friday. He was 82.

His chief of staff, Harry Glenn, said Young died at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he had been for nearly two weeks with back problems that stemmed from a 1970 small plane crash. On Oct. 9, from his hospital bed, Young announced that he would not seek another term in 2014.