TPMMuckraker

County Jeopardizes Emergency Money By Passing On Shady Earmark

It just goes to show: Lee County, Florida was asking for trouble when it decided to rebuff Rep. Don Young’s (R-AK) pork. Now if they’re hit by a hurricane and need help and can’t get it, they’ll only have themselves to blame.

The Department of Transportation warned Lee County, Florida in a letter last week that it has jeopardized receiving emergency funds by voting to return the extra-Constitutional $10 million earmark Rep. Don Young (R-AK) slipped them in 2005.

DOT wrote the county ominously saying:

Since Florida is in the middle of hurricane season, this action could jeopardize potential funding from the Emergency Relief Program, which provides for the repair and reconstruction of Federal-aid highways and roads on Federal lands which have suffered serious damage as a result of (1) natural disasters or (2) catastrophic failures from an external cause.

In order to ensure such funding, the DOT wants the county to revise the process by which it rejected Young’s $10 million.

Don Young

Editor & Publisher

Josh Marshall

Managing Editor

David Kurtz

Senior Associate Editor

Paul Werdel

Associate Editor

Sara Libby

Assistant Editor

Igor Bobic

Reporters

Brian Beutler

Carl Franzen

Sahil Kapur

Eric Kleefeld

Eric Lach

Nick Martin

Evan McMorris-Santoro

Ryan J. Reilly

Benjy Sarlin

Front Page Editor

David Taintor

Poll Editor

Kyle Leighton

News Writer

Pema Levy

Video Editor

Michael Lester

Polling Fellow

Tom Kludt

Video Fellow

Clayton Ashley

Research Interns

Michael Brooks

Publishing Intern

Christopher O’Driscoll

Miles Read

General Manager & General Counsel

Millet Israeli

VP, Ad Sales

Bruce Ellerstein

Waldo Tibbetts

Bob Edmunds

Manager, Ad Operations and Sales Support

Versha Sharma

Deputy Publisher

Callie Schweitzer

Director of Technology

Eric Buth

Designer/Developer

Ni Mu

Matthew Wozniak

Tech Fellow

Dennis Cahillane