Key Players in the Disney Expansion : Bob Carr

When Rep. (D-Mich.) took over the House subcommittee that parcels out billions of dollars in federal transportation aid early this year, he decided he needed to change the panel’s image as a pork barrel paradise.

For the veteran Democrat, that meant reforming the system under which his Appropriations subcommittee each year approves demonstration projects--the local road, bridge and mass transit construction not otherwise financed by the Department of Transportation.

Instead of leaving the selection process to traditional back-room bargaining, Carr assembled a panel of public and private transportation experts, including investment bankers, to rate the hundreds of special requests for public money received by his panel.

And the new process of ranking projects by merit paid off Tuesday to the tune of $13 million for Orange County, despite objections that the plan might overly benefit a private concern--the Walt Disney Co.

Carr explained the committee’s decision this way: “Every project we have serves the movement of people, and sometimes people move because of tourist attractions. Just because it is a tourist attraction doesn’t mean you don’t consider the congestion it creates. . . . Those are the places where people want to get to.”