Senate seeks federal inquiry of altered earmark

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate voted Thursday to seek a federal investigation into a 2005 earmark on a highway funding bill that was altered after Congress approved the measure but before President Bush signed it.

Earmarks are requests for money by a specific legislator, usually for her or his constituency, added onto often-unrelated government spending bills.

The $10 million earmark -- originally designated for improvements to Interstate 75 in Lee and Collier Counties in Florida -- was changed to put the money into building an interchange in Lee County, an apparent violation of congressional rules.

The staff of Rep. Don Young made the changes, the Alaska Republican's spokeswoman said Tuesday, saying the staff had "fixed" a mistake in the original bill.

A proposal put forward by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, to direct the Justice Department to investigate passed the Senate by a vote of 63-29.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called on that body's ethics committee to investigate whether Young violated House rules when the change was made.

"My understanding is that Congressman Young has said that his staff did make that change after this bill had passed the House and the Senate," Pelosi said. "And it wasn't about technicalities; it was about something quite different. And so I think that is something the ethics committee should look at."

Young was chairman of the Transportation Committee and chief author of the 2005 bill, which included a clause that set aside $10 million for "widening and improvements for I-75 in Collier and Lee counties" in Florida.

But before the bill got to the president's desk for his signature, the wording of the earmark was changed, and the $10 million was redirected to build the "Coconut Road interchange I-75, Lee County."

"It was an error," said Meredith Kenny, Young's spokeswoman. "It was originally supposed to say Coconut Road, so they fixed it."

In a brief exchange with CNN as he left the House floor Wednesday, Young repeatedly said "no comment" when asked whether he had anything to do with the change to the earmark.

Democrats have long suspected that Young was responsible for the change, noting that he received $40,000 in campaign contributions as the bill was moving through Congress, from local business leaders who stood to gain from a new highway interchange at that location.

"I don't know," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said when asked whether he thought the contributions were a factor in Young's decision to make the change, "but that's why the Justice Department should look into it."

The Senate stopped a proposal from Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, to set up a special congressional committee, voting in favor 49-43 but failing to reach a 60-vote requirement to pass.

Democrats had opposed Coburn's amendment, saying it is unconstitutional for the Senate to investigate a House member.

Many Republicans opposed Boxer's amendment, arguing that a body of Congress could not order an agency of the executive branch to conduct an investigation.

Boxer's proposal faces an uncertain future in the House, where GOP opposition is strong.

"We need to look at this, and I don't know that the Justice Department is the right place," House Minority Whip Roy Blunt said. "There are clearly problems in the mechanics of what happens with legislation here, and we ought to find out what they are."

The idea that the legislative branch is "suggesting they can direct the executive branch to do something is well beyond the Constitution," he said. "We clearly could direct the Government Accounting Office to do something or some branch of government that the Congress controls."

But Blunt acknowledged that the alteration of a bill after it has passed and before it reaches the president's desk is a problem.

"We don't want members of the staff deciding what legislation says and doesn't say after the Congress votes on it," he said.

House Minority Leader John Boehner said he supports an investigation by the House ethics committee.

"Mr. Young's office has welcomed any inquiry or examination of the earmark, and I would support that as well," he said. "I think it's in everyone's interest that we know what happened and did not happen here."

A spokeswoman for Young said Tuesday that the congressman "has always supported and welcomed an open earmark process. If Congress or the attorney general takes up this matter, then he has no objection." E-mail to a friend

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