Trump administration wants California to pay back billions for high-speed rail
The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it plans to cancel the almost $929 million awarded to California for the construction of a high-speed bullet train -- and it wants the state to pay back an additional $2.5 billion that it has already spent.
In a letter addressed to Brian Kelly, who has led the California State Transportation Agency, the Department of Transportation explained the government’s reason for pulling the funding. According to Richard Batory, the administrator of the agency, California failed to make adequate progress or “effectively manage” the project.
It’s the latest in a series of attacks by President Trump against officials of the state -- which along with 15 other states just filed a lawsuit against the president’s use of a national emergency declaration to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
"As I predicted, 16 states, led mostly by Open Border Democrats and the Radical Left, have filed a lawsuit in, of course, the 9th Circuit! California, the state that has wasted billions of dollars on their out of control Fast Train, with no hope of completion, seems in charge," Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
The president also said that, besides allegedly wasting federal money, the state improperly changed the terms under which it received the federal government's funding.
“California now wants to scale back their already failed ‘fast train’ project by substantially shortening the distance so that it no longer goes from L.A. to San Francisco,” Trump wrote in a tweet on Wednesday. “A different deal and record cost overruns. Send the Federal Government back the Billions of Dollars WASTED!”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, vowed to fight to keep the money, alleging that the move by the federal government was retaliation for the lawsuit.
"This is clear political retribution by President Trump, and we won't sit idly by," Newsom said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. "This is California's money, and we are going to fight for it."
Newsom said during his State of the State address last week that California was scrapping the plan to build a high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco because it would cost too much and take too long.
“Right now there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to L.A.,” he said.
The project, which was supported by Newsom’s predecessor Gov. Jerry Brown, was estimated to have been completed by 2033. Congress approved the funding for the train almost a decade ago. Now, Newsom said he plans to build a high-speed line in California’s Central Valley from Merced to Bakersfield instead.
Under the grant agreement between California and the federal government, signed in 2010, there are several scenarios in which the federal government could take the money back. It can take the money back, for example, if the grantee fails to make "adequate progress" or "fails to complete the project or one of its tasks" or if the state doesn't meet its matching fund requirements.If the federal government decides to take the money back, it doesn't have to wait for California to write a check. The agreement states the federal government could offset the money it would pay California for different transportation or other projects.
California hasn't yet fully matched the $2.5 billion in stimulus money. It's in the process of doing so now, using money from the 2008 bond passed by voters and revenue from the state's cap-and-trade program. It can't unlock the $929 million grant until it completes its match.
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Still, the California High-Speed Rail Authority has already budgeted for the full $3.5 billion. It's put toward constructing a 119-mile (191.5-kilometer) segment of track in the Central Valley expected to cost $10.6 billion.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.