We may finally get some answers about how Rep. Don Young (R-AK) managed to change the text of a bill after it was passed by Congress in order to benefit a major campaign contributor.

In a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) today, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) called for the creation of a select committee comprised of both representatives and senators to investigate the miraculous change to the 2005 transportation bill.

To review the circumstances of Young's extra-Constitutional wizardry: Young, then the chairman of the House transportation committee, inserted a $10 million earmark to widen I-75 in Florida's Collier and Lee Counties in the 2005 bill. The project was supported by local officials. That was the version passed by Congress. But because of Young's unique position, he was able to make a crucial change: the bill later signed by the President had different language, directing the $10 million to an I-75 interchange at Coconut Road. That project had been opposed by local officials, but aggressively backed by real estate mogul Daniel Aronoff, who'd thrown a $40,000 fundraiser for Young that year.

This August, we plowed into the 800-page 2005 bill to see whether there had been any other substantial changes. We found that out of approximately 6,370 earmarks, Young's had been the only to undergo such a change. It's unclear how Young managed that feat, and he's refused to answer reporter's questions about it.

Back in September, the non-partisan watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense filed a complaint with the House ethics committtee about the change. But as expected, the infamously inert committee has done nothing.

Currently pending on the floor of the Senate is a bill that offers a number of corrections to the 2005 bill; among them is a measure that would undo Young's change, freeing up the $10 million for the original interchange project which local officials wanted. It's unclear who authored that provision.

But today, Sen. Coburn (R-OK) said that he'd object to the passage of any bill that corrects the Cocount Road language without a "full and open investigation":

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Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joe Connelly offers a Don Young (R-AK) quiz for readers (what better way to celebrate Thanksgiving?). A sample:

7) A man renowned for his temper, Young has during 35 years in Congress:

a) Waved an oosik, the penis bone of a walrus, at the first woman head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at a hearing.

b) Loudly argued, during a hearing on trapping and animal cruelty, that leg-hold traps are neither painful nor dangerous -- and put his hand into a trap.

c) Reacted to the effort by a Republican colleague to cut one of his pet projects by yelling across the House floor: "There's always another day when those who fight will be killed, too, and I am very good at that."

d) All of the above.

Things get worse for Rep. Don Young (R-AK). The feds are chasing Young for his ties to the corrupt oil company Veco (among other things), and he's already blown $450,000 in campaign funds on criminal defense lawyers. But it looks like investigators pulled out all the stops.

FBI agents recorded former Veco president Rick Smith's phone calls with Young, the AP reports today. In September, the AP reported that Veco's CEO Bill Allen had recorded his calls with Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK).

Young was close to Smith in a couple ways. Smith, who pleaded guilty to bribing a number of lawmakers, arranged Young's annual mega-fundraiser pig roast (see picture above) at a cost of about $10,000 to $15,000 for a decade. But the feds are investigating whether there was another, shall we say, more informal arrangement, according to the AP:

The Justice Department is investigating whether an Alaska oil contractor used golf tournaments to funnel cash to Rep. Don Young, people close to the corruption investigation said....

...[T]he events at the Moose Run Golf Course just outside Anchorage were informal and the prizes were cash. There is no record of them on the campaign or personal financial reports that federal lawmakers are required to file.

"That tournament had nothing to do with the campaign or anything official. It was just people getting together to play golf," said Young's campaign spokesman, Mike Anderson, who declined to discuss the tournaments or how often Young won.

So was Young unusually lucky? It's unclear. The piece doesn't say how much cash Young took away, only saying that between sixteen to twenty-four people generally played in the tournament, each paying $100 each. But for some reason people tend to get suspicious when executives hand large amounts of cash to politicians.

Is there anyone to match Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) earmarking abilities? Sure, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) knows his way around an appropriations bill. But contractors know that the way to Murtha's heart is to open an office in his district. Convincing Young to dole out federal dollars, however, seems even easier.

Witness the $280 billion 2005 transportation bill, Young's masterpiece, the culmination of 30 plus years of experience. In it, Young not only tagged hundreds of millions for his home state -- including his own bridge to nowhere -- but he delivered for projects all over the country. Back in August, we gave a rundown of four states where contributors had ponied up for Young's attention, and this weekend, McClatchy took a step back to admire the full scope of Young's popularity outside of Alaska:

With money pouring in from transportation interests, Young amassed $6.5 million in political contributions from 2001 to 2005. Facing weak political opposition at home, he didn’t need much for his campaign. Instead, Young tapped his campaign fund to travel the country, often lavishly and in corporate jets, to meet with more developers and view their proposed highway projects....

Of the $6.5 million in contributions that Young collected — $5.5 million for his campaign and $1 million for his leadership political action committee (PAC) — about 85 percent came from people who didn’t live in Alaska and couldn’t vote for him.

And many of those contributors weren't disappointed. We've written often about Florida's Coconut Road project. But what about $5 million to help a developer build the largest shopping mall in America in Syracuse, New York? They're just two among many. Take a look.

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) didn't just look out for Alaska when he chaired the House transportation committee. He saw the big picture, keeping in mind the myriad of needs across the country, particularly in those districts that hosted fundraisers for Young's campaign fund. For example, after voters in Arkansas donated thousands to him and his PAC, he helped channel some $415 million in earmarks to the state, situated about 4,000 miles away from his district.

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports that this week the town of Pine Bluff kicked off construction of a highway interchange project. Pine Bluff residents donated $66,000 to Young's campaign fund just before their needed-earmark appeared in the pork-filled highway bill of 2005:

...the connector has seen more than its share of congressional attention over the years. It started with a $ 100 million earmark in 1998 as well as an additional $ 40 million six years later. In 2006, Congress set aside $ 72 million more for the project.

Many credit U. S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., and his predecessor, Rep. Jay Dickey, R-Ark., as well a grass-roots lobbying effort that included throwing fundraisers for a former influential chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska.

When Young's tenure as transportation committee chair ended, he offered the Anchorage Daily News his thoughts:

"Now I can say this is for Alaska and not have to be worried about, you know, Arkansas," said Young with a grin.

Since the Coconut Road earmark scandal broke, Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL), whose district rejected $10 million for the unpopular interchange, has claimed he knew nothing about how the project made its way into the 2005 highway bill. And, in fact, he supports allowing local government to use the money for another project.

But today, The Hill's Susan Crabtree reports that Mack probably knew more than he's let on. According to a letter written by Mack in 2006 to Florida Gulf Coast University, he said he supported the interchange:

The Coconut Road Interchange, built in conjunction with the [Florida Gulf Coast University] Transportation Management Center, stands to be the cutting-edge demonstration project in America to study and improve hurricane and crisis evacuation transportation safety programs,” Mack wrote in the letter, which was addressed to Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) President William Merwin.

It's unclear, though, if Mack played a part in swapping the earmark's language after Congress voted on the highway bill but before the President signed the bill. Earlier this week, The Hill reported that the Congressional Research Service reviewed such post-vote earmark changes and advised that they are unconstitutional.

Recently, House lawmakers filed their third quarter campaign disclosure reports -- and you know what that means! It's time for another round-up of how much lawmakers have dropped on lawyers to defend themselves from investigation.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), with nearly $1 million in total fees dating back to last year, remains the undisputed House champion, but Rep. Don Young (R-AK) is charging hard.

Here's our list of legal spending habits for the past three months, as well as an estimate of how much each lawmaker has spent in campaign funds to date and to which firms:

Rep. Don Young (R-AK): $183,785
So far, Young has spent $447,000 on the law firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Tobin O'Connor Ewing & Richard (the vast majority of which is spent on Akin Gump). He's under investigation for his relationship with Bill Allen, former CEO of oil-services firm.

Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ): $111,042
Renzi has paid around $148,000 to law firms Patton Boggs LLP and Steptoe & Johnson LLP (primarily on Patton Boggs). Renzi remains under investigation by the FBI for pushing legislation that would advantage political supporters and former business partners. His house was raided by the FBI this past April. Renzi has announced that he will not seek another term.

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV): $55,000
Mollohan has spent $78,000 on the law firm Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel. He has been under federal scrutiny since last May for earmarking funds for organizations connected to him.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA): $26,982
Lewis has spent over $987,000 on the law firms Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Williams & Jensen. He is being investigated for earmarks that he provided to campaign contributors, as well as his role in the Duke Cunningham scandal.

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Maybe we'll get to the bottom of this after all? Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) post-vote Coconut Road earmark edit piqued the interest of someone in Congress.

The Hill reports that an anonymous member requested that the non-partisan Congressional Research Service prepare a memo on the process for changing language in a bill after it's been passed by the House and Senate.

In the 2005 highway bill, when Young chaired the transportation committee, a $10 million earmark allocated for an interstate widening project was mysteriously rewritten for a more specific project, after both chambers approved the bill. Young's was the only earmark out of more than 6,000 to undergo such a change. Not surprisingly, the analysis concludes that Young's secret tweak wasn't by the book. It remains unclear precisely who made the change.

As The Hill, which obtained a copy of the memo, reports, there's an official process for altering the language of an already-passed measure -- a process that would require Congress' consent. Of course, that's not what happened.

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Two more challengers have signed on to campaign against Rep. Don Young (R-AK), making it a field of four vying for his seat, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

Former Alaska state Rep. Ethan Berkowitz (D) and former state Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux (R) both said on Wednesday they are entering next year's U.S. House race. Neither openly attacked Young, who another opponent, former Alaska Democratic Party Chair Jake Metcalfe, called a "wounded bear."

Wounded? Maybe. But here's what Young had to say about that in August:

Q. Do you think you’re vulnerable?

A. No. I think it’s going to be a different race....

Q. How?

A. It’s different in the sense that it may be, we’re no different from any other group of animals. You know, they look at me and they see me, I’m 74 years old, and they figure he’s a little old, he’s been wounded, he’s been nicked by the media, and this is going to be interesting when this thing is all over, because then I want to see what people say, you know? ... Well, have at it. They have never been in a race until they’ve been in a race with me. ...

Q. Any idea what we’re going to see differently?

A. Well, I think the standard thing will be raising all these cloudy questions. That’s fine just remember; those that cast stones better damn well better not live in a glass house.

Q. You know stuff?

A. Let’s put it this way, I’m not just going to sit and let everybody beat me up. It’ll make for an exciting campaign.

It looks like Veco plays favorites. Since 1993 the oil services company tangled in several of the Alaska corruption investigations has given Rep. Don Young (R-AK) more than two and a half times what it's donated to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), the AP reports.

Young's raked in $180,630, while Stevens has only pocketed $70,500 (but that presumably doesn't include other perks like Veco employees remodeling his house or parking cars at his fundraisers.) Young and Stevens are both under federal investigation for their ties to the corporation. The FBI is particularly interested in the annual pig roast former Veco CEO Bill Allen would host for Young.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski has only pulled in a pittance ($41,250), but she's only been in Congress since late 2002, when her father bequeathed his seat to her to become governor of Alaska.

House Transportation Committee ranking member Rep. John Mica (R-FL) said no one who works for him was involved in the infamous change to Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) Coconut Road earmark in the highway bill of 2005. Young chaired the committee back then, so the main culprit for the change (made after the bill passed both houses of Congress) has been one of his staffers.

The Hill reports that Mica queried his staff and believes that if a Republican Transportation staff member was involved, he/she no longer works for the committee:

[Mica] also said he was so concerned about how the earmark was inserted that he asked his entire Transportation Committee staff whether any of them had anything to do it.

“If they had, I would have fired them,” Mica remarked, noting that none were involved.

Many of the aides had remained on the committee after Young stepped down as chairman when Democrats assumed the majority in January.

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If the House ethics committee doesn't investigate the Coconut Road earmark that someone slipped in to a 2005 highway bill at the behest of then-transportation chair Rep. Don Young (R-AK), then a watchdog group may file a lawsuit to get to the bottom of it.

The non-partisan Taxpayers for Common Sense called on the House ethics committee to review how $10 million listed for a highway widening project ended up making its way to a project benefiting a developer and major Young campaign contributor after both chambers voted on the bill. But despite the fact that the change seems a blatant violation of House rules, chances are the infamously inert ethics committee won't jump to action.

Watchdog group Public Citizen told The Hill that it would consider taking the matter before a judge if the ethics committee doesn't act.

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Despite a reported FBI investigation and the surrounding controversy, developers in Florida really want to hang on to their hard-earned $10 million Coconut Road earmark from Rep. Don Young (R-AK). And yet everything seems to come back to Young one way or the other.

Real estate developers, led by Daniel Aronoff, who raised $40,000 in campaign contributions for Young are pushing the Metropolitan Planning Organization in Lee County to overturn a recent vote to send the money back to Congress in hopes of having it reallocated for a more popular project. The MPO vote came after it learned that the earmark had been changed after Congress voted on the bill. A new vote could take place at an MPO meeting today.

Florida consultant Joe Mazurkiewicz, a Young campaign contributor and outspoken proponent of the Coconut Road project, emailed the MPO yesterday a memo drafted by a Washington lawyer named Jack Schenendorf. The memo plays down the significance of the Coconut Road earmark change, pointing to another section of the 1,200 page bill where "Jacksonville" was changed to "Jacksonville, FL." (As we've already reported, there were no edits of any of the other 6,000 earmarks in the bill that would have changed where money was directed, aside from Coconut Road.)

The email and memo leave the impression that Schenendorf is a disinterested observer:

Attached you will find a Bio and Statement by Jack Schenehdorf, an attorney with Covington and Burling covering the I 75 Coconut Road Interchange Project. This man’s experience and reputation is without equal regarding Federal transportation issues and funding.

It turns out that Agripartners, a company owned by the same Daniel Aronoff, hired Schenendorf to write the memo, which Agripartners acknowledged in a statement issued last night. Schenendorf is a former chief of staff of the House Transportation Committee which Young is now a member and once chaired and has contributed to Young's campaign fun (albeit only $1,500).

Update: The MPO just voted to reject the Young earmark again.

Hopefully we're about to get closer to learning how Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) $10 million Coconut Road earmark made its famous post-vote change. A Washington watchdog group filed a complaint today with the House ethics committee asking for an investigation into the drastic edit, calling it "an extraordinary case of the House of Representatives’ integrity being undermined."

You can read the complaint here.

Ryan Alexander, executive director for the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense, said her group filed the request for an investigation because in reviewing thousands of earmarks, they have never come across one that was altered after a Congressional vote.

"We don't have any information that this has ever happened before," Alexander said. "We thought this was extraordinary enough that it was worth asking someone to get to the bottom of it. The ethics committee is in the position to do that, to get the relevant information from committee staff and members of Congress."

Initially, Congress approved a bill that would have given Florida $10 million for a highway widening project, but as we've explained before, during a 13-day window between the bill passing Congress and the President signing it into law, the earmark changed. It was the only such change among 6,000 earmarks in a pork-filled bill. The new Coconut Road wording redirected the money to a project that would be a boon to a real estate developer and major campaign contributor of Young's.

The timing of the change could mean that the earmark or the transportation bill itself may not have the effect of law, the watchdog group alleges in its complaint:

The actions taken by Rep. Young’s staff to change an earmark after final Congressional approval is an apparent violation of Article 1, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution, that provides, “Every Bill shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate,” before it becomes a law.

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Enter the lobbyists! The News Press reports that a lawyer who represents the lobbying firm that originally pushed for the Coconut Road interchange is continuing the effort. In a recent letter, the lawyer, Patrick Reilly, argues that the locally unpopular $10 million project ought to stay the way it is, Constitution be damned.

Reilly's working on behalf of the Potomac Partners, the D.C. firm hired by real estate mogul Daniel Aronoff to secure the funding for the Florida project. Aronoff also wisely helped raise Rep. Don Young (R-AK) $40,000 in 2005. His combined efforts paid off.

Interestingly, Reilly doesn't dispute in his letter that the earmark's language was changed after Congress passed the 2005 transportation bill.

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Hear that? That silence is the sound of my phone not ringing. It's been a familiar quiet since I first started trying to get some answers about Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) Coconut Road earmark last month.

Someone, apparently acting on Young’s behalf, managed to change the bill’s language in the massive 2005 transportation bill after it had passed both houses of Congress, but before the President signed it into law. The change no doubt gratified real estate developer Daniel Aronoff, who’d raised $40,000 for Young earlier that year in his push for $10 million to construct a highway interchange. Young’s language change steered that cash away from the community’s requested use and to Aronoff’s pet project.

So a few weeks ago, I decided to figure out how, in a very technical sense, a bill's language can change after it passed both houses of Congress. Surely there must be a process to keep bills awaiting the President's signature safe from tampering, or so I assumed.

But after being passed repeatedly from office to office, I’m still none the wiser as to how Young might have changed the bill’s language. It’s become crystal clear, however, that those who should know don’t have a ready answer -- and don't seem eager to find one.

I started with a call to the current House clerk in late August; I heard nothing. Then I tried the House clerk who was in place in 2005 when the rewording occurred. Jeff Trandahl, now the executive director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, was on a cruise two weeks ago. When he returned, his secretary called to let me know he is too busy to talk -- too busy indefinitely, that is. I pressed, asking if that means he is saying no comment. "No, he is just too busy with an upcoming fundraiser." (Classic Washington blow-off line!)

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A newly-identified key player in the investigations of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Rep. Don Young (R-AK), construction worker Robert Williams, told the AP about the testimony he gave a federal grand jury on his double-duty rolls while on the Veco payroll:

Williams said he was in charge of "special projects" for VECO founder Bill Allen, and the renovation of Stevens' home was one such project. Others included working three or four fundraisers for Stevens while on the clock with VECO. Federal elections laws prohibit candidates from accepting donations or free services from corporations.

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Here's a copy of the request for an ethics investigation into Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) murky Coconut Road earmark that we mentioned earlier.

Last month I spoke with executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Melanie Sloan who said there's virtually no chance that the famously inactive House ethics committee will pursue the issue. But as Paul just noted, maybe the sleeping giant has awakened. We here at TPMmuckraker like to think of the glass as half full.

The Democratic candidate running against Rep. Don Young (R-AK) has asked for an official investigation by the House ethics committee into Young's extra-Constitutional Coconut Road earmark.

The earmark was rewritten after Congress voted on the legislation, prompting legal experts and watchdogs to question the ethics and legality of the earmark and call for an investigation into how it happened, as the candidate, Diane Benson, noted in her announcement of the complaint.

She also told Alaska Public Radio Network that despite the many scandals Young faces, including a federal investigation into his Veco ties, she has decided to focus solely on the Coconut Road earmark controversy.

"I don't want to see this be ignored because I think the implications are too great," Benson said on APRN. "This is exactly how we end up where we are now with people getting indicted. We have a responsibility to say: we want you to tell us the truth."

Last week, the trial of former Alaska state Rep. Pete Kott (R-AK) on corruption charges churned up an unwelcome amount of muck for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). But yesterday it was Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) turn. Former Veco president Rick Smith testified that he arranged Young's annual mega-fundraiser pig roast at a cost of about $10,000 to $15,000 for a decade. Smith wasn't asked if Young reimbursed him.

The pork galas had been hosted at Veco CEO Bill Allen's house, but since he pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska lawmakers, a change of venue was necessary. So it took place at former Gov. Bill Sheffield's place this year, where about 70 protesters hollered outside. Back in January, Young reimbursed Allen $38,000 for "fundraising costs," though Young hadn't held a fundraiser that month. The refund seems to be part of Young's new habit of returning suspect fundraising money after federal investigators become interested.

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.

Transportation Weekly editor Jeff Davis takes a thorough look at the historical precedent for Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) Coconut Road earmark language edit, discovering that the Supreme Court has looked at this issue before .

In the freewheeling 1890s, the court concluded in Field v. Clark that a bill signed into law is the law, despite any apparent discrepancies in the Congressional record:

Better, far better, that a provision should occasionally find its way into the statute through mistake, or even fraud, than that every act, state and national, should, at any and all times, be liable to be put in issue and impeached by the journals, loose papers of the legislature, and parol evidence. Such a state of uncertainty in the statute of laws of the land would lead to mischiefs absolutely intolerable...

Davis notes that since the Field decision, the court has grown more wary of official corruption, as reflected in McConnell v. FEC. This could mean the court would consider overturning Field in a case currently being considered for review, Public Citizen v. Clerk. It that decision did overturn Field, the entire 2005 highway bill could be found unconstitutional. That outcome seems unlikely and would certainly take a long time to reach.

In the meantime, Republicans on the House Transportation Committee have signaled that they may allow the Florida county involved to keep the money for the purpose originally described, though they do not have a concrete plan of how that would happen.

The last time we checked in on Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) extra-Constitutional Coconut Road earmark, Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) had just written the House Transportation Committee asking that it back local officials who want to spend the $10 million on its original purpose -- rather than on the interchange popular only with an out-of-state real estate developer.

That appears likely to happen. A spokesman for the ranking Republican member on the committee Rep. John Mica (R-FL) said he supports allowing local authorities to use the money for the widening of Interstate 75 rather than Coconut Road, though how the process would play out is not entirely clear.

"I think however it is addressed going forward here, [Mica] would certainly want to do his best to make sure that it is done properly and technically correctly," said spokesman Justin Harclerode.

The letter is waiting for chairman Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN) to take a look, but his spokesman said he will likely let committee Republicans handle the issue.

"I don't know what course of action we are going to take, but generally we defer to the minority party on [these requests]," said spokesman Jim Berard. "This was something that was inserted when the Republicans were in the majority, it was a Republican request and usually these are handled by the individual party."

Berard also mentioned that Young -- who is a member of the committee -- will likely join in on the discussions because he is the original author of the earmark.