Anchorage Daily News

WASHINGTON - An Oklahoma senator plans is planning to propose legislation next week that would force a special congressional investigation to find out who set aside $10 million in a 2005 transportation bill -- after it won final House and Senate passage -- to study a possible highway interchange in Southwest Florida. Such an investigation would almost certainly focus on veteran Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young, who was chairman of the House Transportation Committee when the unusually late substantive revision was made in the summer of 1995.

Months earlier, Young collected more than $40,000 at a fundraiser in Bonita Springs, Fla., much of it from a Florida real estate developer and others seeking the interchange along Interstate Highway 75.

McClatchy reported last year that the FBI was looking at Young's role in redirecting the $10 million, which until then had been specified for widening a portion of I-75, as part of an investigation into his earmarking practices and his relationship with an Alaska oil services company.

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn's amendment, a copy of which was obtained by McClatchy, would create a select committee appointed by congressional leaders in each chamber to "determine when, how, why and by whom such improper revisions (to the bill) were made."

Meredith Kenny, a spokeswoman for Young, said the congressman "has always supported and welcomed an open earmark process."

"If Congress decides to take up the matter of this particular project," she said, "there will be no objection from Mr. Young."

The Coconut Road episode also has upset many members of Congress because the change was made during a period, after final passage, in which only non-substantive technical corrections could be made.

Coburn vowed in December to block unanimous passage of a routine bill updating the transportation legislation unless the Senate agreed to an investigation. His plan to introduce a formal amendment signals a more determined push.

Coburn's spokesman, John Hart, said that both Florida senators - Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Mel Martinez - are co-sponsoring the amendment, which calls for creation of an eight-member, bipartisan, bicameral investigative committee.

Hart said Coburn plans to introduce the amendment no later than Monday and is confident that the full Senate will get to vote "on the substance of the provision."

"We're hopeful this will have broad support,'" he said, "because this episode was a brazen attack against the integrity of every member of Congress, and it calls into question the constitutional authority of each member. Most senators would not appreciate the idea of some unknown entity in the House changing a piece of legislation on the way from Congress to the president's desk. ... It's really an unprecedented abuse of power."

The committee would have subpoena powers to compel the appearance of key witnesses and obtain documents. It would be required to deliver an interim report by Aug. 1 and a final report by Oct. 1.

Vice President Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group that helped uncover the earmark, said that a joint congressional inquiry "can restore confidence that lawmakers know what they're voting on is what actually gets into law."

He said that "this gimmick, this power play to shift the language, had real consequences. ... The community down there has been waiting two years to get their $10 million to actually widen I-75 because of this whole long, drawn-out fight over the interchange at Coconut Road."

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