Just in time for Don Young's election.
The Senate has approved a measure requiring the Department of Justice to
investigate the controversial Coconut Road earmark connected to Rep. Don
Young (R-Alaska).
Senators voted 64-28 to add the amendment to a bill making technical
corrections to the 2005 highway bill, despite opposition from Speaker
Nancy
Pelosi (D-Calif.), who on Thursday said the House ethics committee, and
not
Justice, should investigate the matter.
"I think that's something the ethics committee should look at," Pelosi
told
re****ters.
The $10 million earmark for the Coconut Road interchange in Florida was
placed in the massive 2005 highway bill after the House and Senate passed
the bill but before it reached the president's desk. The original language
called only for improving and widening Interstate 75 in Ft. Myers, Fla.
The measure calling for the Justice investigation was sponsored by Sen.
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). Asked about that proposal, Pelosi said: "We have
an ethics committee."
Pelosi denied telling the Senate that an amendment calling for an
investigation into the earmark would serve as a poison pill and sink the
technical corrections bill. Senators have said the House has threatened to
kill the underlying bill if the Senate attached an amendment convening a
congressional inquiry into the matter.
Some House Republican leaders previously said they oppose any
congressional
action directing the Justice Department to launch a criminal
investigation.
The Boxer amendment was a reaction to an initiative by Sen. Tom Coburn
(R-Okla.), who has offered his own amendment to convene a bicameral select
committee with subpoena power to investigative the earmark. The Senate is
also expected to vote on Coburn's measure this afternoon.
from:
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/pelosi-calls-for-ethics-probe-of-young-earmark-2008-04-17.html
