California voters last November approved Proposition 1B, one of the largest transportation infrastructure bonds in California history. More than 1 million of the votes for Proposition 1B -- 23 percent -- came from Los Angeles County. We passed 1B because we all know that infrastructure improvements are badly needed. L.A. County has the worst traffic anywhere in the country.

Unfortunately, the will of the county's voters is at risk because of a small group of faceless bureaucrats in Sacramento. The first 1B funds, up to $4.5 billion, are being handed out by the California Transportation Commission later this month. The staff of the CTC recently issued a report recommending projects for funding. The report is astonishing not only because it significantly shortchanges highly congested regions such as Los Angeles County but because it, in effect, asks traffic commissioners to violate the law.

As an assemblyman in a district and county with significant traffic congestion, I voted to place Proposition 1B on the ballot. And the language of 1B is clear: (1) $4.5 billion of the bond was made available to the CTC to fund performance improvements on "highly congested travel corridors" in California and (2) construction of the projects must commence no later than 2012. The CTC report violates the plain language of both provisions.

L.A. County, through the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, submitted approximately $1.8 billion in proposed projects to the CTC. The CTC staff arbitrarily reduced that amount to only $328 million and refused to fund the majority of MTA's project submissions. The county, however, has one-third of California's highway congestion, almost one-half of Southern California's congestion and 28 percent of the state's population. Yet, under the CTC staff report, L.A. County would get only 12 percent of Proposition 1B funding. That is unacceptable.

Proposals for funding traffic improvements on some of the most highly congested travel corridors in California were denied or significantly slashed, including improvements on the 405, 5, 605 and 10 freeways. These freeways are far more congested than the overwhelming majority of other statewide projects approved by the CTC staff.

How did the CTC staff get it so wrong? There are two explanations. Either the staff members didn't read the law, or they intentionally set out to shortchange urban districts. In the case of the 405, one might argue the former. The reason CTC bureaucrats gave for denying funding to widen the 405 in L.A. County is that they thought construction would not occur until 2011. That is simply incorrect.

Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed special legislation that allowed construction on the 405 to commence in 2009. California Congress members such as Howard Berman fought to secure $130 million in federal funding specifically for widening the 405, with the understanding that construction would proceed in 2009. There were multiple press stories and everyone involved in 405 construction knew that construction was going forward in 2009 -- everyone, that is, except apparently the CTC staff.

But if one digs a little deeper, it appears this is not just a mistake. CTC staff's reason for denying funding for the 405 not only was factually incorrect, it was made up out of thin air. The CTC's "rule" that projects need to commence by 2011 is nowhere to be found in the bond. The plain language of 1B states that projects to be funded need to commence by 2012, not 2011. The CTC cannot arbitrarily make up its own rules and substitute its judgment for that of the Legislature and voters.

A closer look at the CTC staff's recommendations results in a very disturbing conclusion: Its recommendations systematically cut funding in urban districts and approve funding in rural districts. Regional submissions from urban areas such as Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco were drastically slashed, whereas predominantly rural areas received funding well out of proportion to their actual traffic congestion. That is in direct violation of the law. Urban districts have far more "highly congested travel corridors" and should have far more funding, not less.

On Wednesday in Irvine, CTC commissioners will vote on the staff's recommendations. If they approve the recommendations, they will have violated the plain language of Proposition 1B and the will of the voters. Let's hold the CTC accountable. Call the CTC at 916-654-4245 and ask the panel to approve all of L.A. County's submissions. Ask the CTC to follow the law that the voters passed last November.

Ted W. Lieu, D-Torrance, represents the 53rd Assembly District.