On the August 22 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, following a report on the low approval ratings of the current Congress, host Wolf Blitzer claimed, “Part of the reason so many Americans say they're angry at the Congress is waste -- so angry that now one Florida county is questioning a $10 million earmark they say they don't need.” Blitzer was introducing a report by CNN Miami correspondent John Zarrella on an allegation that, in 2005, then-chairman of the House Transportation Committee Don Young (R-AK) changed the language of a $10 million earmark for Florida (also known as the “Coconut Road” project) in that year's federal transportation bill after the conference report had been passed by both the House and the Senate. However, neither Blitzer nor Zarrella identified Young as a Republican and neither noted that Republicans controlled Congress when Young allegedly made the change to the bill.

Concluding the segment, Blitzer said: "[Y]ou've got to believe this isn't the only such example of a story like this in a massive transportation budget, as we have." In fact, the blog TPMmuckraker.com reported on August 22 that, according to a study it conducted of the 6,371 earmarks in the 2005 transportation bill, “the only earmark that underwent a substantive change was Young's pet Coconut Road project.” Additionally, TPMmuckraker reported that Stan Brand, former general counsel to the House of Representatives, “couldn't think of another instance where a lawmaker had made such a change to a passed bill.”

From the August 22 edition of CNN's The Situation Room :

BLITZER: Part of the reason so many Americans say they're angry at the Congress is waste -- so angry that now one Florida county is questioning a $10 million earmark they say they don't need.

John Zarrella is watching this story for us. John, this money was -- is supposed to build a road there. They say they don't need it. So how did it end up in the federal budget?

ZARRELLA: Wolf, that is the unanswered question. Back in 2005, Congress approved $91 million for improvements and widening on Interstate 75 in Florida. Ten million of it was going for a highway widening in Southwest Florida. But somewhere along the line, that $10 million went somewhere else.

[begin video clip]

ZARRELLA: This is Coconut Road in Fort Myers, Florida. About half a mile away, through those trees, is Interstate 75. Two years ago, a federal transportation bill included $10 million to start work on a new interchange, linking the road and the highway.

Sounds great, right? But here's the problem: County planning officials never asked for the interchange. And it's not what Congress voted for.

Carla Johnston chairs the county planning organization. She charges something fishy happened after Congress passed the bill.

CARLA JOHNSTON (Metropolitan Planning Organization chairwoman): Some time between then and when the president signed it, somebody tampered with the bill.

ZARRELLA: In the bill passed by the House and the Senate, the $10 million goes for, quote, “widening and improvements for I-75 in Collier and Lee counties.” But in the final version the president signed, the language was changed, says Johnston. The money was now going to, quote, “Coconut Road interchange I-75, Lee County.”

Alaska Congressman Don Young was chairman of the House Transportation Committee. It was his bill. When contacted by CNN, Young's office could not immediately say who made the change or why it was made.

Citizens Against Government Waste calls it:

TOM SCHATZ (Citizens Against Government Waste president): Legalized bribery is exactly what it sounds like. It's a form of providing money in exchange for a project. And, in this case, it's totally legitimate.

ZARRELLA: At about the same time the bill was making its way to the president, Young attended a campaign fundraiser at a hotel on Coconut Road, where local business leaders gave his campaign $40,000. One of them was Joe Mazurkiewicz.

JOE MAZURKIEWICZ (local business leader): And the public perception, the spin of this whole story has been, it's been a political payback. And I just don't see is that way.

ZARRELLA: You don't see it as a political payback?

MAZURKIEWICZ: No. I don't see it as -- you know, I see it as really proper planning.

ZARRELLA: Mazurkiewicz says Young spent much of the day assessing the area's transportation problems, highway gridlock, and the need for more hurricane evacuation routes. Young also met with, and was briefed by, local university officials, whose independent studies concluded an interchange, along with highway widening, would relieve congestion.

But last Friday, two years later, the county, while agreeing to keep the money, voted overwhelmingly not to use it for Coconut Road.

JOHNSTON: I think that this is not only a local issue. This is a national issue. I mean, we can't have the constitutional process hijacked -- and this is hijacking the constitutional process.

ZARRELLA: Congressman Young's office did issue a statement to CNN regarding the interchange, saying Young was just trying to help. Quote, “When they saw a need for a hurricane evacuation route, Representative Young helped them fill it. If they no longer see the need, then that is their choice” -- end quote.

[end video clip]

ZARRELLA: Now, the county planning officials say they have absolutely no intention to give the money back. What they want Congress to do now is to go back and reinsert the original language back into the bill so that they can spend the money on what they say it was originally intended for, which is widening and improvements of Interstate 75 -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And you've got to believe this isn't the only such example of a story like this in a massive transportation budget, as we have.