House Expected To Pass Bill Calling For Justice Department Investigation Of Earmark

The House is expected to pass a bill Wednesday that will call for a Justice Department investigation into a controversial earmark for a Florida highway project.

Normally the House passing a highway technical corrections bill would not be breaking news, but this particular measure contains a provision that would call for a Justice Department investigation into the changing of the text of a 2005 highway corrections bill.

Earlier this month it was revealed that a staff member from Rep. Don Young's (R-Alaska) office changed the text of an earmark in the 2005 bill after it cleared Congress but before it was sent to the president's desk.

Young's office has insisted the staffer made only a minor, technical change in rewriting a highway bill so that a $10 million earmark went not to the widening of Interstate 75, as the original legislation provided, but instead to the construction of a highway interchange that would have been helpful to a developer who had just held a fundraiser for Young.

Young has insisted he has done nothing wrong and said that no change could have gone through without the approval of a bipartisan staff committee and the final approval of the enrollment clerk.

The Senate, however, passed the highway corrections bill with the provision calling for an investigation into the matter by a vote of 88-2 on April 17.

Some Republicans, led by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Ok.) had been calling for a bipartisan, bicameral investigation into the changing of the earmark, saying that inviting the Justice Department to investigate Congress could potentially be unconstitutional.

Both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have indicated they support the DOJ probe.