Washington, D.C. – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today condemned the rejection of an amendment to create a bicameral investigative committee to figure out how a $10 million federal earmark placed by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) for an unnecessary road project in Florida was inserted into the 2005 highway bill.  Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) proposed amendment to H.R. 1195, “technical corrections” to the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users Act (SAFETEA-LU) failed 49-43.  Prior to the vote, Democratic leadership changed the Senate rules so that Sen. Coburn’s amendment would have to win a 60-vote supermajority in order to pass.  As an alternative, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) offered an amendment to shift the investigation over to the Justice and it passed by a margin of 63 to 29.   

“This entire episode smells of backroom deals and political payoffs.  The same Democrats who have spent the last several years condemning the Justice Department and the Executive Branch for imperial, unconstitutional power grabs now seem perfectly happy to relinquish their constitutional authority to perform oversight.  This was a transparent ploy to delay and obfuscate the truth about what really happened and protect their political cronies, and they twisted parliamentary rules to do it.  Congress has promised to end the culture of corruption but instead they are aiding and abetting it,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz. 

In 2005, after the highway bill was approved by Congress, but before it was signed by the President, an earmark for Lee and Collier Counties in Florida was quietly changed from $10 million for “widening and improvements in I-75” to $10 million for the Coconut Road Interchange/I-75.  With more than 6,500 earmarks worth about $24 billion in the bill, this “minor” change went virtually unnoticed until it was discovered that the Florida earmark tweaking came from the opposite end of the country, in Alaska.  Developer Michael Aronoff, who owns property along Coconut Road and stands to benefit financially from increased road access, helped then-House Transportation Committee Chairman Young raise $40,000 for his re-election campaign. 

The interchange was criticized by environmental groups for its close proximity to wetlands and by local officials for its low priority.  Many area residents felt the money was “tainted” by how it was procured.  In 2007, the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization voted 10-3 to return the $10 million to the federal government and ask that the money be spent for its original purpose, to widen I-75. 

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.