RIORDAN TO PRESS CONGRESS TO MAINTAIN TRANSIT FUNDING.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan will spend today in Washington, trying to persuade a dubious Congress to continue providing billions of federal dollars for the region's bus, rail and other transit projects over the next several years.

At the top of the priority list for the mayor and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is a request for $250 million to buy 650 more buses, followed by $202 million for rail projects - including $58 million for the east-west San Fernando Valley line - and assorted other funds for car-pool lanes, overpasses and more.

Though Riordan remains supportive of a Valley rail line, it won't be his first priority, said Steve Sugerman, deputy to the mayor.

``Statistics show that even with the rail projects now being built, buses will continue to be by far the No. 1 transit mode used by more people in the county even 25 years from now,'' said Sugerman.

Riordan will make a lengthy presentation on the MTA's behalf to the House Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, which is deliberating not only this year's spending requests, but also is prioritizing projects under a five-year plan called the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act II.

``As a member of the (MTA) board, he felt it was important to make an appearance in Washington to speak to the members of the subcommittee,'' Sugerman said. ``He felt that direct was best.''

Numerous observers have said the MTA faces weakened support in Washington, after the agency experienced repeated construction and spending problems, political wars and outside investigations.

In the past two years, Congress has shorted the agency about half the rail money it had promised when it passed ISTEA the first time in 1990. And this year, the Clinton administration also has reduced significantly the annual funding request it made to Congress on the MTA's behalf.

To make matters worse, the agency's local congressional delegation has been locked in an inter-regional battle that further undermines the MTA's case.

It began last month when three east-side members of Congress forced the MTA board to add a $44 million east-side subway project to its ISTEA wish list, a move some critics said further bloated the list and made its passage even less likely.

And Valley congressmen and other political leaders said the move was simply the first step by east-siders in trying to leapfrog long-held MTA support for the Valley line.

Their fears were confirmed when the east-side representatives sent a letter to U.S. Rep. Bud Shuster, chairman of the House Surface Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, saying the east-side subway project should go first if the Valley line wasn't ready.

Despite the east-siders' actions, Sugerman said Riordan remains strongly behind an east-west Valley line as the agency's next rail priority because, ``he feels the MTA should honor its commitments.''