annual tradition for federal lawmakers<\/a>, who consider funding needs expressed by cities, government agencies and nonprofits in their districts and then seek to bring back some federal money for those projects.<\/p>\nRep. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, requested the most in federal dollars this go-round for Orange County, more than $46 million, including $7.5 million for the construction of an adaptive playground in Fullerton.<\/p>\n
Rep. Linda S\u00e1nchez, a Democrat whose district includes La Habra but is mostly in Los Angeles County, requested the least amount, just under $6.5 million, for projects within Orange County.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers requested money for the construction of a river walk alongside the Santa Ana River, a center for innovation and entrepreneurship in Irvine and the revitalization of Old Town Placentia, to name a few.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Congress is in the midst of its summer recess, but already, members of the House Appropriations Committee have done some work on the budget, including scaling back the amounts they think should be allocated for certain projects.<\/p>\n
While just how much money Orange County can expect to see from lawmakers\u2019 requests remains to be seen \u2014 both the full House and Senate will need to OK the budget by the Oct. 1 deadline \u2014 here\u2019s a snapshot of some of the projects the congressional delegation hopes to earmark funds for.<\/p>\n
Infrastructure<\/p>\n
Most of the funding requested by Orange County\u2019s lawmakers is for infrastructure needs, including $62.8 million to improve highways, repair bridges and add better signals and traffic controls on the roads.<\/p>\n
Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, asked for just under $10 million to add new lanes for several roads, including the 5 Freeway and Savi Ranch Parkway Road in Yorba Linda.<\/p>\n
Rep. Mike Levin also requested $2.5 million to realign and widen the La Novia Avenue bridge in San Juan Capistrano.<\/p>\n
Other projects included better stormwater infrastructure in Seal Beach, utility upgrades to Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach and an expansion of the Orange County Mosquito & Vector Control District\u2019s biosafety lab.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Public safety<\/p>\n
Lawmakers asked for some $34.5 million for public safety projects, including new real-time crime centers \u2014 to give officers better intelligence for live operations and enhance tactical support \u2014 in Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Orange.<\/p>\n
Rep. Derek Tran, D-Orange, requested money for a new emergency operations center in Los Alamitos that would respond to active emergencies and join a national emergency management system. He also requested funds for multiple construction projects for various public safety offices in La Palma.<\/p>\n
Other requests included $8 million for specialty vehicle fleet modernization for the county and $2.5 million for renovations to the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Department\u2019s Harbor Patrol facility.<\/p>\n
Recreational<\/p>\n
Lawmakers requested another $39 million for upgrades to recreational facilities, including parks, libraries, public trails and senior centers.<\/p>\n
Levin, the San Juan Capistrano Democrat, requested $10 million for improvements to the Mariposa Walkway and Trail in San Clemente, which provides access to the North Beach area during high tide.<\/p>\n
Other projects include almost $5 million for upgrades to senior centers in Westminster, Costa Mesa and Stanton.<\/p>\n
Fire safety<\/p>\n
More than $21 million was requested for building and remodeling fire stations throughout Orange County.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers requested funds for renovations in Newport Beach, Orange, Garden Grove and Fullerton to modernize systems and equipment in their fire stations.<\/p>\n
Rep. Dave Min requested $2 million to replace the South Laguna Beach fire station, which earned a poor structural assessment by the city in 2020, according to Min\u2019s office. The Irvine Democrat also requested $1.5 million for fire prevention efforts alongside Laguna Canyon Road.<\/p>\n
Tran requested $5 million for a new fire station in Fountain Valley that would also serve as an emergency operations center for the city.<\/p>\n
Water<\/p>\n
Lawmakers requested $14 million for water quality treatments in Orange County.<\/p>\n
Around $10 million of that is for upgrades to PFAS treatment plants for the Orange County Water District and the city of Santa Ana.<\/p>\n
Another $1 million was requested for improvements to the San Gabriel River\u2019s water quality, and still another $1 million was earmarked for a new water well in Yorba Linda.<\/p>\n
Colleges<\/p>\n
Lawmakers requested $14 million for Orange County colleges and employment initiatives, including $1.5 million for a Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Irvine that Min\u2019s office said would \u201cserve as a catalyst to empower local entrepreneurs to create high-growth, technology-driven companies and drive sustainable economic growth in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Min requested $900,000 for a regional criminal justice training center at Golden West College. Correa requested $2.5 million for Santa Ana College\u2019s Criminal Justice Academies and $4.8 million for programs in automotive and robotic manufacturing.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Kim asked for $2.5 million for Santiago Canyon College\u2019s water and biotechnology programs.<\/p>\n
Homelessness and housing<\/p>\n
Min and Tran were the only Orange County lawmakers to request funding for homelessness and housing projects in the county.<\/p>\n
Min asked for $1.5 million for the Huntington Beach Navigation Center to modernize and expand the city\u2019s shelter operated by Mercy House.<\/p>\n
Tran, meanwhile, requested $2 million for the Orange County Housing Finance Trust for site acquisition and construction of affordable housing developments.<\/p>\n
Find a full list of each representative\u2019s community funding requests on their House websites<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orange County\u2019s congressional delegation requested more than $190 million in federal funding for 2026 to improve road infrastructure,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":133969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[64,276,607,8629,50,1036,80,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-133968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-entrepreneurship","11":"tag-local-politics","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-orange-county","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115003695058990384","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133968","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=133968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}