Anderson’s Ouster as Committee Chairman May Cut Local U.S. Aid

Surprised by Rep. Glenn M. Anderson’s ouster as chairman of the powerful House Public Works and Transportation Committee, officials from Los Angeles County expressed concern Thursday that local highway, port and transit projects will have a harder time securing federal support.

As chairman of the panel since 1988 and previously as chairman of a key subcommittee on surface transportation, the San Pedro Democrat has been able to steer federal funding for numerous projects to the region and was instrumental in obtaining authorization for the Metrorail system.

“We’re in an era now when we’re spending money on transportation in a big way, and we need matching funds from the federal government,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana said. “I’m not pleased at all. This is very unfortunate.”

Anderson, 77, lost his chairmanship Wednesday in a 152-100 caucus vote by House Democrats. Rep. Robert A. Roe of New Jersey was chosen to replace him. Recently, several Democrats on the panel had complained privately that the committee was adrift, saying the advancing age of Anderson, an 11-term congressman, had left him overly reliant on his staff and unable to keep abreast of complex policy issues.

Many key projects backed by Anderson, including the Century (105) Freeway and an elevated bus and car-pool lane being built on the Harbor (110) Freeway, are far enough along so that Anderson’s removal will not interfere with their completion, officials said.

Anderson has been known as a consummate dispenser of money for pork barrel projects and has helped secure financing for the Century Freeway (officially the Glenn M. Anderson Freeway) and a major deepening of the Port of Los Angeles’ main ship channel, which was also named for him.

Neither Anderson nor his spokesman in Washington was available for comment Thursday.

He will remain on the committee as its senior member. But a number of officials in the county said they fear his ouster will dilute Los Angeles’ power on the committee, particularly since the federal budget crunch has increased competition for federal funds. The committee has a big say in where federal money is spent for roads, ports, railways, airports, water plants and other public works.

City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who heads a city panel planning a project to consolidate rail and truck traffic to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, says she had been hoping that Anderson, as chairman, would pursue federal funding for it.

“I’m hopeful we’ll still get funding, but it’s going to be a little rougher without (Anderson as) chairman of the public works committee,” Flores said Thursday. “It’s going to make our job of financing more difficult.”

In a written statement, Los Angeles County Transportation Commission Director Neil Peterson said he did not expect Anderson’s removal from the chairmanship to complicate the Metrorail project. The project, he said, “has received tremendous bipartisan support in Congress because of its merits, and we do not believe this will change.”

But James Seeley, the city of Los Angeles’ lobbyist in Washington, said Anderson’s removal will make it harder to marshal federal support for Metrorail and other projects that still require a significant amount of federal action.

Although the first two stages of Metrorail were placed on the fast track for congressional consideration, due in part to Anderson’s efforts, the third phase of the project still faces an arduous authorization process, officials said.

Seeley said that having Anderson in the chairman’s post also would have helped ensure that Congress appropriates the $150-million federal share for initial work on a 30-year, $4.8-billion project to double the cargo handling capacity of Terminal Island.

“I don’t think (Congress) will overlook Los Angeles, but Anderson did provide an increment of clout that did very well by us,” Seeley said. “It’ll make it tougher.”