Five Los Angeles-area members of Congress urged the Trump administration Wednesday to speed up $2 billion in transportation funding that the lawmakers said is critical to assuring that athletes, officials and fans can move easily around Southern California during the 2028 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
The call came at an informal hearing by House members in West Hollywood, where local transportation officials said the money is needed to deploy 1,700 extra buses and to create high-speed lanes on streets and freeways during the Summer Games. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are certainly insisting that the federal government provide the resources that Los Angeles needs to make these Games a success,\u201d said Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale). \u201cWe know we need $2 billion to give the seamless, wonderful experience that everybody expects when they come for these Games.. . . And so far, the federal government [has not] released anything really.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statements by the House members came on the same day that L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia demanded that LA 28, the private nonprofit overseeing the Games, provide more detailed reports on its finances.<\/p>\n
LA28 has only complied fully with two of nine requirements of a contract with the city, known as the Games Agreement, Mejia said in a news release. Missing documents include comparisons of revenue from sources including ticket sales and sponsorship deals so far against<\/b> financial projections, bank statements, schedules and budgets for venues and the identity of contractors and the dollar value and purpose of contracts.<\/p>\n
Mejia said the city had been ill-advised to agree to be the financial backstop, should the Games lose money. Olympic officials have insisted that will not happen. But Mejia said he needs more than promises.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all want a successful 2028 Olympic Games,\u201d Mejia said in a statement, \u201cbut its success cannot be at the cost of transparency and accountability to LA taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n
LA28 officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
The meeting at West Hollywood City Hall by the five lawmakers \u2014 all Democrats \u2014 is just the latest effort by local officials to coax financial support out of President Trump and Republicans who control both the House and Senate.<\/p>\n
Though omnibus legislation approved last year promised $1 billion in security funding to make the 2028 Games secure, none of that money has arrived in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Without federal support, the Games won\u2019t be the showcase event for Los Angeles, California and America that most people are expecting, said Friedman and the four other Democrats she called together for the panel.<\/p>\n
A White House official rejected claims that Trump\u2019s team isn\u2019t doing enough to support the 2028 Games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe White House has been proactively working and meeting with local LA Officials, Members of Congress, and the Organizing Committee at the highest levels to discuss these issues,\u201d the official said, adding that, while the talks were \u201cin the early stages, the Administration is actively doing its part to ensure the resources needed are secured to ensure this is the greatest Olympics in history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials at LA28, the nonprofit overseeing what will be L.A.\u2019s third Summer Games, also didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment. The private group generally has pursued a less confrontational approach in trying to secure cooperation, and funding, from Republicans in Washington.<\/p>\n
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) said this summer\u2019s World Cup soccer matches in L.A. held out the promise the city can successfully mount world class sporting events.<\/p>\n
Kamlager-Dove, who represents the district that includes the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and other venues, noted that she and more than three dozen elected officials previously wrote to Transportation Secy. Sean Duffy demanding more federal support.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u201dI have to reiterate, Los Angeles may be the physical host of the Olympics, but it is the United States of America that is in fact hosting this Olympics,\u201d she said. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t have to wait this dang long waiting for this money that we deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials at L.A. Metro, who operate the region\u2019s biggest bus and rail lines, previously told the board overseeing their agency that neither Washington nor the Democrat-ruled state Capitol in Sacramento has come through with transportation funding. They said the funds are needed as soon as possible for priorities, like securing an additional 1,700 buses to augment the 2,100 already in the system and beginning work on special road and freeway lanes designed to assure that competitors and officials make it to venues on time.<\/p>\n
The Metro officials said the Republican-controlled House had \u201ckicked the can down the road,\u201d rather than approve an initial $875 million outlay for 2028 Olympic transportation. When California legislators approved their 2026-27 budget this summer it did not include another $379 million L.A. Metro had requested for infrastructure improvements.<\/p>\n
The transit agency said that if delays continued much longer, it would endanger their ability to get L.A. and neighboring communities ready in time. Kamlager-Dove\u2019s letter to Duffy said that the fiscal year that begins Sept. 1 would be the last chance to get the money in place soon enough to be useful.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Vides, chief customer experience officer for L.A. Metro, said the World Cup proved L.A. can be \u201cmore than a car-centric metropolis,\u201d adding: \u201cWe are a transit city, and we are ready for the global stage. \u201c<\/p>\n
She said that ridership on L.A. Metro trains and buses increased by 4.4 million in June and July, compared to the same months in 2025. And more than 70% of riders surveyed about their experience deemed themselves \u201cvery satisfied.\u201d That bodes well for use of transit, rather than cars, when the Games arrive in July of 2028, Vides said.<\/p>\n
But several of the House members said the agency and others providing bus service need to make sure that there is enough parking, shade, water and other necessities so that customers are willing to ditch their cars.<\/p>\n
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) praised the cleanliness, efficiency and low cost of a bus he rode from Torrance to SoFi Stadium for a World Cup Game, but not the 15-minute walk he said it took from the drop-off point to the stadium.<\/p>\n
Lieu expressed concern that security perimeters would be so large during the Games that drop-off points would be even more distant, necessitating walks of up to half an hour, discouraging fans from taking buses.<\/p>\n
Bill Scott, chief of Metro\u2019s in-house police force, said security perimeters have not yet been set for SoFi and other 2028 venues. \u201cThere are a lot of security concerns that we\u2019re still hashing out, but the goal is the shorter of those options that you present,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
Rep Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), whose district includes Inglewood\u2019s SoFi Stadium, said she is concerned that businesses will be displaced by some of the transit and parking plans. Like other local lawmakers, she said she also wants to see more done to assure that jobs and other economic benefits from the Games help her constituents. A similar view was expressed by Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), who represents a San Gabriel Valley district. <\/p>\n
To drive home their appeal for funds from Washington, the lawmakers displayed a board that showed the amount of money sent by the federal government to support previous games. It showed $1.82 billion went to Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Olympics and $2.61 billion to Salt Lake City to host the 2002 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n
Another sign, behind the panelists, highlighted a comment by Duffy to Congress in July of 2025: \u201cI stand willing and ready to partner with you to make sure this goes well and we showcase this great country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laura Rubio-Cornejo, general manager of the L.A. city Department of Transportation, said the federal funding would also help assure that the Olympic transit push doesn\u2019t take away from buses and trains that get everyday Angelenos to work, schools and other destinations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe less federal funding there is to support that program, it puts a strain on our local roads and freeway system,\u201d Rubio-Conejo said, \u201cand then we\u2019ll be looking to other municipal operators to really pitch in at a greater level, and thereby sacrificing the services to everyday Angelenos, who still need to get to work and school. And so that I think is the risk that we\u2019re seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five Los Angeles-area members of Congress urged the Trump administration Wednesday to speed up $2 billion in transportation…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1026399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[410585,1582,276,2451,13140,6413,410587,6276,410586,2961,224,2444,5337,344886,6459,1408,41508,410588,277,6191],"class_list":["post-1026398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-big-bus","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-city","tag-comment","tag-games","tag-house-member","tag-l-a","tag-l-a-area-lawmaker","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-losangeles","tag-mejia","tag-money","tag-official","tag-summer-olympics","tag-transit-fix","tag-trump","tag-venue"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117164755321052878","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1026398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1026399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1026398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1026398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1026398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}