Today, the U.S. House of Representatives will most likely join the Senate by voting for a measure requesting an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into the now infamous Coconut Road earmark. We'll have CREW's statement on that vote shortly after it occurs. However, before the vote, Rep. Don Young, who is at the center of the controversy, defended the earmark -- but never explained how it got included in the final legislation:

For the first time, Rep. Don Young has offered a public explanation for a secret transportation earmark that so angered fellow lawmakers they called on the Justice Department to investigate it.

Speaking today on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, Young acknowledged that he had "been the subject of much innuendo" for the 2005 earmark, which shifted $10 million from a road widening project in southwest Florida to a study of an Interstate interchange that promised to benefit one of Young's campaign donors.

After his speech, the House voted to join a Senate call for a Justice Department investigation into the earmark. The request for an investigation was attached to a bill that makes technical corrections to Young's original 2005 highway spending plan. The bill also allows Florida to spend the $10 million on road widening and not the Coconut Road interchange study.

Young said that the earmark, part of a $286.4 billion highway bill he oversaw as chairman of the House Transportation committee, was never designed to benefit anyone in particular. The accusations have "little if any connection with what actually occurred," Young said in an 11-minute speech on the House floor.

Even as Young defended the earmark, he did not offer an explanation for how it was inserted into the highway-spending bill after the House and Senate both had voted on it. As chairman, Young said, he had no control over the bill enrollment process.