By Editorial Staff, AHN News, April 22, 2008
22 Apr 2008 // House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is planning to gather support from fellow Democratic congressmen for a Senate investigation into a a $10 million earmark for Florida's Coconut Road, CQ reports.
The Senate voted last Friday to pass a bill introduced by Environment and Public Works Committee chairman Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) asking the Department of Justice to investigate the controversial earmark, which appeared on the 2005 transportation measure after both chambers of Congress approved the legislation, but before President George Bush signed the bill into law.
Rep. Don Young (R-AK) will be at the center of the investigation since he was chairman of the House Transportation Committee at the time the transportation bill was passed. He allegedly added the earmark in return for a $41,000 contribution from a Florida real estate developer, the Alaska Report says.
Young has said the request for funding to construct an exit along Coconut Road near Fort Myers was made during a town hall meeting attended by local officials including Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) at Florida Gulf Coast University, the New York Times reports.
The Senate had also been considering to create bicameral committee to investigate the earmark, but lawmakers were concerned about constitutional issues that may arise from if the Senate began a probe of the House and decided not to approve Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) proposal. A House vote is now needed to complete the Senate's request to the Justice Department. The support of the House may be more forthcoming than earlier anticipated.
"The Speaker believes this a matter for the House ethics committee to look into, but she has no intention of standing in the way of the transportation bill as it moves forward to the president's desk," Pelosi Spokesman Nadeam Elshami said in an interview with CQ, surprising fellow lawmakers as well as advocacy groups.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) earlier sent a letter to the Speaker complaining, "Congressional leadership is improperly shielding members of Congress form criminal investigation and prosecution through an expansive interpretation of the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution."
The group also praised Coburn for initiating an investigation of the earmark but criticized the Senate. "In sending the matter over to the Department of Justice, the Senate has ignored the Speech or Debate clause, which prevents law enforcement from introducing legislative material (such as an earmark in a bill) as evidence against a lawmaker. In addition, while the Senate has called for an investigation, the House undoubtedly will do everything possible to stymie such an inquiry," CREW said in a statement on its website.