Whodunnit? GOPer Quizzes Staff on Coconut Road ChangeHouse 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.
âIf they had, I would have fired them,â 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.
Mica also sent a letter to Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) yesterday, whose district has fought locally over what to do with Rep. Don Young’s (R-AK) $10 million earmark, asking Mica to help get the money reallocated for the broader, interstate widening project, rather than the narrow, locally unpopular proposal.
Mica’s letter to Mack is posted here.
