With all the talk in the last year of transparency with regards to earmarks, Rep Don Young (R-Alaska), reminds us why real reform is needed.

The Senate moved yesterday toward asking the Justice Department for a criminal investigation of a $10 million legislative earmark whose provisions were mysteriously altered after Congress gave final approval to a huge 2005 highway funding bill.

In what may become the first formal request from Congress for a criminal inquiry into one of its own special projects, top Senate Democrats and Republicans have endorsed taking action in connection with the earmark that Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), former chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, inserted into the legislation.

Young’s staff acknowledged yesterday that aides “corrected” the earmark just before it went to the White House for President Bush’s signature, specifying that the money would go to a proposed highway interchange project on Interstate 75 near Naples, Fla. Young says the project was entirely worthy of an earmark and he welcomes any inquiry, a spokeswoman said.

The “correction” Rep Young made was to divert the funds from a general highway fund which would allow the State to allocate the monies as needed, to a specific project benefiting Rep Young’s political donors.

Ed Morrissey has more:

Young, who represents Alaska, says that this project in Florida is “entirely worthy”, but that depends on definition. Local officials didn’t want the project, and have tried three times to cancel it. Unfortunately, since the money comes from a Congressional earmark, they can’t apply the funds anywhere else. However, Young got $40,000 from developers who will benefit from the highway extension at a fundraiser hosted by these same interests. In terms of campaign donations, the fraudulent earmark has certainly proven “worthy”.

The change involved transforming the earmark from general highway projects in Florida to this specific development. It took months before Young would admit that he had changed the earmark after the passage of the bill, but he claims that it had nothing to do with the $40,000 he got from the Florida developers. Young says that he always intended on making the earmark specific to this project — but for some reason corrected it only after its passage into law.

This is the same Don Young responsible for the “bridge to nowhere”, and the same Don Young who has been under investigation as part of a federal corruption probe:

U.S. Rep. Don Young is under criminal investigation, the second member of Alaska’s congressional delegation to be part of a federal corruption probe, a newspaper reported.

Young is being investigated for his alleged ties to Veco, the Anchorage-based company whose former top two executives — including former CEO Bill Allen — have pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state lawmakers, the Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, reported on its Web site late Tuesday.

Is it any wonder conservatives are fed up with the Republican party?

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Congress, Earmarks, Features