Sizing up Lampson's influence on transit funding

Post-election, there's a potentially interesting situation shaping up on the transportation funding subcommittee of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee. That's the group, remember, that OKs federal transit funds — it's the one U.S. Rep. John Culberson sits on, and it is his membership in that subcommittee that allowed Culberson to deal a strong blow to Richmond light rail plans this summer. But here's what may be interesting: With Democratic control of the House, newly elected Rep. Nick Lampson — who has indicated he is more in the pro-rail camp — may also end up on the subcommittee.

Culberson is now the only Texan among the subcommittee's 15 members, but local Democrats would like to change that: According to the Chronicle, Reps. Gene Green and Sheila Jackson Lee both want Lampson on the subcommittee, but they also want Culberson to keep his seat there. "I think generally the new majority is much more sensitive to mass transit and light rail," Green told the Chron. "But we still have to work to get our money, and Culberson is going to be on that committee, and we still need to have his help." Though CD22, which Lampson will represent, doesn't include any of Metro's proposed light rail or bus rapid transit lines, Lampson would have some say over whether money gets directed to those projects if he were on the subcommittee — remember, Tom DeLay was also a member of the group, and he blocked Metro from spending any federal money on light rail.

On his Web site, Lampson wrote that he "strongly disagreed with Rep. Tom DeLay when he took an 'over my dead body' approach to increased light rail and Metro funding," but it's not clear exactly what his position will be or whether his holding a seat on the subcommittee would end up meaning anything at all. Still, opponents of a Richmond Avenue light rail alignment are taking note: "It would not behoove Mr. Lampson to go fishing in troubled waters" regarding the rail debate, Chris Seger, an Afton Oaks resident and Richmond alignment opponent, told the Chronicle.