In the clearest language he’s used yet, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) disclaimed responsibility for changing the language of the Coconut Road earmark after it had cleared both houses of Congress on the House floor today. He also repeated his earlier criticism of the Senate’s vote to require a Justice Department investigation, calling it a “slippery, slippery road.” You can see his comments here:
All this notwithstanding, Young supported the overall bill, which contained a fix to change the earmark’s language back to the way it was before the infamous change. The bill passed easily today.
Young’s spokeswoman had earlier called the change a “correction” by staff, but Young was more specific on that point today. Young said that the “enrollment” process, where technical changes are made by the House clerk to tidy up the bill that Congress passed, “is not a process I own or control.” He added: “I have never been in an enrollment office.” The ambiguity remains, however, of whether anyone on Young’s staff urged the change.
And he went on to say that it was nothing remarkable that there had been a change. For instance, he said, there had been an earmark for a Jacksonville in the bill, but that the enrollment clerks had changed the language to specify for which of the six U.S. Jacksonvilles it was intended.
As we explained at length in this post, minor changes are regularly made to bills in the enrollment process. But Young’s earmark was unique of the 6,371 earmarks in that underwent such a substantive change. It was originally for the widening of I-75 in Collier and Lee counties in Florida, and it was changed to concern only the Coconut Road interchange in Lee County. So he’s being more than a little slippery here.