LOS ANGELES COUNTY - U.S. Congressman Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) has joined the bipartisan coalition of federal, state and local officials urging the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to develop an inclusive, regional and longer-term strategy to maximize federal funding for new projects, announced MTA Director, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

"In its current form, the MTA long range plan is short-sighted," Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said. "Without these projects, the MTA stands to lose hundreds of millions of federal transportation dollars."

Fourteen members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter encouraging the MTA Board to support a more regional approach for federal dollars when it votes on an update to its Long Range Transportation Plan Thursday.

In the letter, the members of Congress expressed concern that the MTA is "not positioning itself well to receive its fair share" of funding for new projects and warned "it's short-sighted not to include the Gold Line Foothill Extension, Gold Line Eastside Extension and Crenshaw/South Bay Transit Corridor in Metro's New Starts funding priority."

The delegation includes Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, Diane Watson, Linda Sanchez, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Judy Chu, Grace Napolitano, Maxine Waters, Jane Harman and Joe Baca and Republicans, David Drier, Jerry Lewis, Mary Bono Mark, Gary Miller and Ken Calvert.