The e-mailed memo was an "Intel" report from a transportation lobbyist to his client in Missouri. The memo quoted staff from the Republican House leadership describing Young as a "rogue member" even as he chaired a major committee. At the same time, the memo said, the Bush White House was trying to beat back the tax increase without publicly embarrassing Young but was growing increasingly upset "with the way he keeps pushing forward."
The memo was filed July 8 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. It dates back to the third year of Young's six-year reign over the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. At the time, Young was preparing a colossal, pork-filled highways bill and believed he could pay for it by increasing the gas tax.
The memo was dated March 13, 2003, eight months before Young released the first, $375 billion version of his transportation bill.
A spokeswoman for Young, Meredith Kenny, said Young wouldn't comment on the memo. In 2003, he said the huge bill was necessary because the U.S. highway system was becoming outmoded and clogged. According to Kenny, Young was concerned that the means for paying for road construction, the Highway Trust Fund, was being depleted because cars were getting better gas mileage. For each mile driven, less tax -- Young called it a "user fee" -- was being collected.
"Rep. Young is in favor of providing long-term highway trust solvency (in) whichever manner is most efficient to accomplish that," Kenny said.
SURROUNDED BY SCANDAL
In 2003, Young was vocal in his belief that the particular manner was the gas tax -- so vocal that Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, a conservative opponent from Colorado, said in June 2003 that he screamed in her face and jabbed her with his finger as she gathered signatures on the House floor for a letter opposing the increase.
The "Intel" e-mail was written by Todd Boulanger, a former Republican Senate aide who then was a "Team Abramoff" lobbyist for Greenberg Traurig, the Washington law firm that employed disgraced super lobbyist Jack Abramoff, now in federal prison.
Boulanger pleaded guilty in 2009 to lavishing congressional aides with meals and tickets in exchange for help with legislation sought by his clients. Boulanger sent the 2003 e-mail about Young to a new client, Jay Wunderlich, government affairs director for the Missouri Transportation Department.
Boulanger also sent a copy to Trevor Blackann, then a committee aide to U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Missouri. Blackann pleaded guilty in 2008 to income tax violations for not reporting gifts from Abramoff's associates, including a trip to New York for the 2003 World Series.
Fraser Verrusio, Young's policy director on the Transportation Committee, is facing three felony charges for taking that same World Series trip and not reporting it.
Verrusio was the second senior committee aide on Young's committee charged in the Abramoff scandal. Mark Zachares, special counsel to Young, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2007. He is cooperating with prosecutors and the FBI and has not yet been sentenced.
Verrusio is fighting his charges. A trial date has not been set but is approaching as U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts hears a series of pretrial motions. Among them is a request by Verrusio to exclude more than a dozen proposed federal exhibits, including the 2003 Boulanger memo.
Nothing filed in the Zachares or Verrusio cases implicates Young with wrongdoing. He has been under scrutiny in the Alaska corruption investigations over alleged illegal campaign donations and gifts from Veco Corp. and its allies. Young says he has done nothing wrong, but also hasn't been told he has been cleared.
In his argument, Verrusio's attorney said the Boulanger "Intel" memo is "impermissible character evidence" that makes Verrusio look bad because Boulanger describes him as a source about Young and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Speaking about the gas tax increase, Boulanger said: "In the past two days I've had discussions with both Fraser Verrusio (Political/Outreach) and Graham Hill (professional staffer) on the T&I Committee and they seemed determined to push this matter. When I asked if this is a proposal just to get the dialogue moving forward, they said no. While I still think Chairman Young is huffing and puffing, his heels are dug in for the moment."
'STUFFED LIKE A TURKEY'
In January 2003, the Associated Press first reported Young's idea to index the 18.4-cent-a-gallon tax to past and future inflation so that it would reach 33 cents by 2009. The AP quoted Young's spokesman as saying that White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card didn't take a position on the tax when he met with Young.
But in his memo, Boulanger said the White House was firmly opposed.
"I spoke with both White House Legislative Affairs and (Bush political adviser) Karl Rove's office the morning. They are 100% opposed to increasing taxes for funding, especially a regressive tax like the gas tax," Boulanger said. "Staff has been told by the White House CoS, Andrew Card, to play nice and not to embarrass the Chairman, however, they are upset with the way he keeps pushing forward. According to the Leg Affairs office, the Chairman has been warned, but he seems to be moving forward nonetheless. They suspect that if Chairman Young keeps insisting on the gas tax increase that the President will say something on the issue."
Republican leaders in the House, hearing complaints that they were promoting big spending, were even more upset, according to Boulanger.
Majority Leader Tom DeLay's deputy chief of staff, Brett Loper, told Boulanger he was confident that the leadership would turn back Young's tax increase.
The office of Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, was "more forthcoming with intel" than DeLay's staff, Boulanger said.
"They said that leadership is very upset with Chairman Young's proposal to raise gas prices for many reasons, but they were even more upset with his tactics -- i.e., using selective leaks to push his agenda. They also said they are viewing him as a rogue member right now."
Even some members of Young's committee, all of whom benefited by pork to their districts, were concerned, Boulanger wrote.
"I know conservatives on the T&I Committee don't feel that the letter they signed supporting the Chairman bound them to the gas tax," Boulanger said. "They are uneasy about the situation."
When Young finally presented the transportation bill in November 2003, he didn't include a method of paying for his $375 billion program. That would have been up to the tax committees, anyway. Young's bill would have spent $128 billion more than the highway proposal from the Bush administration.
Back in Anchorage a month later, Young boasted about the size of the bill in a news conference. "I stuffed it like a turkey," he said.
Young's bill got nowhere until 2005, when he scaled it back and got the House to pass a $284 billion version. The bill included Alaska's notorious "Bridges to Nowhere" and eventually, inserted after it passed both the House and Senate, the Coconut Road interchange in Florida that benefited a developer who raised $40,000 for Young.
The controversy over the massive bill and its earmarks were frequently cited by liberal and conservative commentators as one of the reasons why Republicans lost the House to Democrats in the 2006 election. With the switch in power, all the Republican committee chairs lost their jobs.
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