Nelson and Martinez back reversal of road earmark

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.

{mosads}“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.