California's lefty politicians and the state's High Speed Rail Authority would really appreciate it if the federal government would keep shoveling billions of dollars of taxpayer money in their direction without any real results to show for it many, many years later. But that might be coming to an end:
The California high-speed rail project may soon lose billions of dollars in federal funding.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy released the department's report on Wednesday following an investigation into the high-speed rail project.
The 300-page report says the project is in default of the terms of its federal grant awards and says the high-speed rail authority lacks the capacity to deliver the early operating segment by 2033.
Nearly $4 billion in federal funding is now at risk.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says so far $16 billion has been spent on the rail project. Well, maybe we should just call it "the project" because "rail" doesn't yet have anything to do with it:
California’s high-speed rail has all the marks of a boondoggle:
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) June 4, 2025
- $16 billion spent
- 17 years gone
- No high-speed track laid
We have put California on notice: If you can’t deliver, American taxpayers will not fund your train to nowhere. pic.twitter.com/EHradMYSRv
Right on cue, the California High Speed Rail Authority (that shouldn't have authority over anything judging from the super expensive lack of results) offered up a defense that actually makes things way worse:
Yikes. In their statement to claim progress w/ the CA bullet train, they highlight that CA is looking to allocate at least $1 billion per year “FOR THE NEXT 20 YEARS” to complete the “initial segment”.
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) June 4, 2025
It was all supposed to be done in 2020 for $33 billion. Now looking at 100+. https://t.co/9ugugIL3Qp
Seriously?
Yes, seriously:
The Authority strongly disagrees with the FRA’s conclusions, which are misguided & do not reflect the substantial progress made.
— CA High-Speed Rail 🚄💨 (@CaHSRA) June 4, 2025
We remain committed to completing the nation’s first true HSR system & will fully address + correct the record in our response to the FRA’s notice. pic.twitter.com/QHV4tu0qxt
For some reason we're reminded of Dan Aykroyd's character in "Ghostbusters" when he said fondly "they gave us money and facilities and we didn't have to produce anything."
Live look at the CA High Speed Rail Authority: pic.twitter.com/XSD33tQm1v
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 4, 2025
Exactly.
$20 billion MORE just for the INITIAL useless segment!!! WTF 🤬!!
— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) June 4, 2025
I struggle to wrap my head around all the billions of dollars being laundered and stolen from this project.
— Lilly Wilson (@RealLillyWilson) June 4, 2025
This begs for a full audit of how every dollar has been spent, and we're sure the Democrats would fight to try and make sure that never happens. Gee, wonder why?
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