Senate seeks inquiry into road earmark - Don Young (R,Alaska)

[HullBoss]

http://www.adn.com/news/politics/fbi/young/story/378533.html

FOCUS ON YOUNG: Sen. Boxer says jail should punish any crime.

By ERIKA BOLSTAD
[e-mail]

WASHINGTON -- If federal investigators haven't already gotten the message, the U.S. Senate made it clear Wednesday: They want an inquiry into Rep. Don Young's 2005 earmark for the now-infamous Coconut Road interchange in southwest Florida.

Deeming it a "devious" change that was made after the House of Representatives and the Senate both passed the multiyear highway-funding bill, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., called for the Justice Department to investigate the earmark. Boxer's proposal is an alternative to one offered by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who wants a bipartisan panel of House and Senate members who have subpoena power.

An internal congressional investigation doesn't have the threat of jail time, Boxer said Wednesday on the Senate floor, but a federal criminal investigation does.

"I'm so angry about this, I'm so upset about this. I'm sick about this," Boxer said. "It's very possible people ought to go to jail here ... if there was a crime, then the person ought to go to jail or the people ought to go to jail. Let's get right to the point instead of setting up a political committee."

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GO, BARBARA! I sure wish she was my senator.


Blue_in_AK (on HullBoss's computer)