News
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress is once again going coconuts over Rep. Don Young’s Coconut Road earmark.
Anti-earmark crusader Sen. Tom Coburn is holding up passage of technical corrections to the 2005 highway bill until the Senate agrees to investigate how $10 million got dedicated to an interchange project at Coconut Road after the $286 billion bill had passed both chambers of Congress.
The Senate has been trying all week to pass the technical corrections bill but Coburn has single-handedly held it up in an effort to force a vote on his amendment. The Senate was expected to take up the issue again Thursday afternoon.
Coburn, R-OK, wants to create a bipartisan, bicameral committee with subpoena power to look into how the earmark, which was placed in the transportation bill by Young, was changed.
“This legislation charges the special committee with determining ‘when, how, why, and by whom such improper revisions were made,’” Coburn said in a prepared statement.
The special panel would consist of eight lawmakers chosen by Democratic and Republican leaders of both chambers. The panel would have the authority to refer its findings to the House and Senate ethics committees and federal law enforcement agencies.
Senate Ethics Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., also supports an investigation, but she, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have constitutional concerns about members of the Senate investigating a member of the House, and want the Justice Department involved.
Coburn insists Congress should clean up its own mess before calling in the Justice Department.
Senate leadership is trying to broker a compromise that could include the investigation being handled by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.
Young has declined to speak about the issue but Meredith Kenny, his press spokeswoman, said he would not oppose an investigation.
“Congressman Young has always supported and welcomed an open earmark process,” Kenny said. “If Congress decides to take up the matter of this particular project, there will be no objection from Mr. Young.”
Young, who at the time was chairman of the House Transportation Committee, put in the earmark at the request of Florida Gulf Coast University officials, who said it would improve hurricane evacuation on Interstate 75.
The bill approved by the Senate and House, however, only said the money was to be used for widening and improving Interstate 75 in southwest Florida. Sometime later, but before it was signed into law by the president, the language was changed to study an interchange at Coconut Road.
The local county planning board voted three times to reject the money, and members of the Florida congressional delegation have said the money is not needed. Florida Sens. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and Mel Martinez, a Republican, are cosponsors of the Coburn amendment.
Florida Rep. Connie Mack, who sat on the Transportation Committee with Young when the earmark was written into the highway bill, denied knowing about it at the time, and has even called for the money to be redirected to the widening of I-75.
However, lobbyists working with the Florida university to secure funding for the interchange have said Mack was aware of the project. There’s also a 2006 letter written by Mack in which he says he supports the Coconut Road interchange.
Meredith said Mack invited Young to his Florida district to hear about local transportation needs prior to the writing of the 2005 transportation bill, and was present when the university requested the interchange.
Critics of Young have accused him of sponsoring the earmark as a favor to Florida real estate developer Daniel Aronoff in return for hosting a fundraiser that brought in $40,000 for the Alaska congressman’s campaign. Aronoff, a supporter of both Young and Mack, owns property that could possibly be developed if the interchange were built. Young has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
As for the changes, Kenny said the earmark language was incorrect in the bill and that committee staff requested it be corrected. That request was approved through the normal process of having a bicameral and bipartisan committee sign off on the changes before the bill is sent to the enrollment clerk, Kenny said.
“If you have an issue with this earmark then you have an issue with the process, not the member,” Kenny said. “The congressman is being used as a scapegoat for a problem with the process.”
Lawmakers stuffed some 6,370 earmarks worth $24 billion into the 800-page highway bill and dozens of changes were made after its passage to clean up clerical errors, but Coconut Road is the only appropriation that is being challenged.
Congressional watchdog groups like Taxpayers for Common Sense argue the Coconut Road earmark goes beyond the minor corrections normally made to a bill after its been passed.
The issue has even become a topic of political debate in the presidential election. Presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., have both signed on as cosponsors of Coburn’s amendment.
Anti-earmark crusader Sen. Tom Coburn is holding up passage of technical corrections to the 2005 highway bill until the Senate agrees to investigate how $10 million got dedicated to an interchange project at Coconut Road after the $286 billion bill had passed both chambers of Congress.
The Senate has been trying all week to pass the technical corrections bill but Coburn has single-handedly held it up in an effort to force a vote on his amendment. The Senate was expected to take up the issue again Thursday afternoon.
Coburn, R-OK, wants to create a bipartisan, bicameral committee with subpoena power to look into how the earmark, which was placed in the transportation bill by Young, was changed.
“This legislation charges the special committee with determining ‘when, how, why, and by whom such improper revisions were made,’” Coburn said in a prepared statement.
The special panel would consist of eight lawmakers chosen by Democratic and Republican leaders of both chambers. The panel would have the authority to refer its findings to the House and Senate ethics committees and federal law enforcement agencies.
Senate Ethics Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., also supports an investigation, but she, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have constitutional concerns about members of the Senate investigating a member of the House, and want the Justice Department involved.
Coburn insists Congress should clean up its own mess before calling in the Justice Department.
Senate leadership is trying to broker a compromise that could include the investigation being handled by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.
Young has declined to speak about the issue but Meredith Kenny, his press spokeswoman, said he would not oppose an investigation.
“Congressman Young has always supported and welcomed an open earmark process,” Kenny said. “If Congress decides to take up the matter of this particular project, there will be no objection from Mr. Young.”
Young, who at the time was chairman of the House Transportation Committee, put in the earmark at the request of Florida Gulf Coast University officials, who said it would improve hurricane evacuation on Interstate 75.
The bill approved by the Senate and House, however, only said the money was to be used for widening and improving Interstate 75 in southwest Florida. Sometime later, but before it was signed into law by the president, the language was changed to study an interchange at Coconut Road.
The local county planning board voted three times to reject the money, and members of the Florida congressional delegation have said the money is not needed. Florida Sens. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and Mel Martinez, a Republican, are cosponsors of the Coburn amendment.
Florida Rep. Connie Mack, who sat on the Transportation Committee with Young when the earmark was written into the highway bill, denied knowing about it at the time, and has even called for the money to be redirected to the widening of I-75.
However, lobbyists working with the Florida university to secure funding for the interchange have said Mack was aware of the project. There’s also a 2006 letter written by Mack in which he says he supports the Coconut Road interchange.
Meredith said Mack invited Young to his Florida district to hear about local transportation needs prior to the writing of the 2005 transportation bill, and was present when the university requested the interchange.
Critics of Young have accused him of sponsoring the earmark as a favor to Florida real estate developer Daniel Aronoff in return for hosting a fundraiser that brought in $40,000 for the Alaska congressman’s campaign. Aronoff, a supporter of both Young and Mack, owns property that could possibly be developed if the interchange were built. Young has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
As for the changes, Kenny said the earmark language was incorrect in the bill and that committee staff requested it be corrected. That request was approved through the normal process of having a bicameral and bipartisan committee sign off on the changes before the bill is sent to the enrollment clerk, Kenny said.
“If you have an issue with this earmark then you have an issue with the process, not the member,” Kenny said. “The congressman is being used as a scapegoat for a problem with the process.”
Lawmakers stuffed some 6,370 earmarks worth $24 billion into the 800-page highway bill and dozens of changes were made after its passage to clean up clerical errors, but Coconut Road is the only appropriation that is being challenged.
Congressional watchdog groups like Taxpayers for Common Sense argue the Coconut Road earmark goes beyond the minor corrections normally made to a bill after its been passed.
The issue has even become a topic of political debate in the presidential election. Presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., have both signed on as cosponsors of Coburn’s amendment.
