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Nelson and Martinez back reversal of road earmark |
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By Susan Crabtree
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Posted: 12/03/07 08:35 PM [ET] |
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Florida’s two senators are supporting efforts to reverse Rep. Don Young’s (R-Alaska) controversial Coconut Road earmark.
Sens. Bill Nelson (D) and Mel Martinez (R) wrote a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), its ranking member, asking them to jettison the Coconut Road earmark and restore the original language in the 2005 transportation bill.
“Our constituents have asked us to correct the highway bill so the money in question can be used for its intended purpose: to ease road congestion on the interstate so people in the fast-growing area don’t have to sit in traffic jams,” they wrote in a letter dated Aug. 24. The Hill obtained the letter late last week.
Ethics watchdogs have accused Young of initiating a change to a provision in the 2005 transportation bill to benefit a number of Florida developers. The altered language, which was made after Congress passed the measure but before it was signed by the president, designated $10 million for a “Coconut Road Interchange” on Interstate 75, whereas the original language authorized the money for “widening and improvements” for I-75.
Nelson and Martinez want the change to be made in a transportation technical corrections bill, which will either be voted on in the Senate this month or die on the vine and have to be rewritten next Congress. |
