California Democrats urge feds to approve high-speed rail funding before DOGE nixes ‘boondoggle’

Several prominent California Democrats are calling on the U.S. Department of Transportation to approve a grant request for $536 million in federal funds to move forward with the state’s long-awaited high-speed rail network.

The money would come from funds generally already allocated to a “federal-state partnership.”[s] for Intercity Passenger Rail Grants” through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2021 and made available through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024.

the Democrats called Pete Buttigieg’s secretary approve the funds, saying progress on the “California Corridor Phase I” is “critical to improving investment in our nation’s and California’s strategic transportation network.”

“The first phase of the corridor aims to address climate issues, promote health, improve access and connectivity and boost economic vitality, while addressing current highway and rail capacity constraints,” the letter to the outgoing cabinet member said.

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Made by Senator-elect Adam SchiffSen. Alex Padilla and California Democratic Reps. Jim Costa, Zoe Lofgren and Pete Aguilar, the letter requests that the funds be directed to two projects in particular: tunneling through the Tehachapi Mountains in Southern California and through Pacheco Pass at Diabla Mountain in Northern California.

“These investments will continue to support livable jobs, provide opportunities for small businesses, and equitably increase the mobility of communities in need – including disadvantaged agricultural communities – all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Schiff and other lawmakers wrote.

“We ask that you consider the tremendous value and significant impact that the FSP-National grant will provide to the advancement of CAHSR outside of the Central Valley,” they told Buttigieg.

The bores are needed, lawmakers said, to connect with other intercity passenger rail systems, including the Brightline WestCalTrain, Metrolink and Altamont Commuter Express.

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According to California Republicans, the entire high-speed rail project is nearly $100 billion over budget and decades behind schedule.

Trump’s DOGE duo of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy aren’t keen on the idea of ​​continuing to fund what many Republicans see as an expensive and failed venture.

Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., said as much earlier this month in remarks on the House floor.

“I am very happy to report that the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency has honed in on perhaps the greatest example of government waste in the history of the United States – the California high-speed rail failure,” Kiley said.

DOGE X’s official account also detailed the cost of California’s high-speed rail and requested funding in a tweet in November.

Earlier this month, Ramaswamy also called the plans a “wasteful vanity project” that burned “billions of taxpayers’ money with little prospect of completion in the next decade.”

He said Trump “correctly” cut federal funding for the $1 billion project in 2019 and regretted President Biden’s U-turn that move.

“It is time to end the waste,” Ramaswamy said.

The top Republican in the California Senate echoed DOGE leaders’ concerns.

“California’s ‘train to nowhere’ has already wasted billions of taxpayer dollars — now Biden wants all Americans to fund this nonsense,” state Sen. Brian W. Jones of San Diego told Fox News Digital.

“When President Trump returns to office in a few weeks, he must withdraw funding for high-speed rail. This wasteful government experiment must end once and for all,” he added.

If approved, federal funding would be bolstered by $134 million in state money from California’s cap & trade program, according to the Sacramento Bee.

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At a 2013 conference, Musk floated the idea of ​​a “hyperloop” that was also presented in a white paper. While it hasn’t caught on yet, Musk said at the time that he was considering whether there was a better way to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco than what California proposed.

“The high-speed rail that is being proposed would actually be the slowest high-speed train in the world and the most expensive per mile,” he said. “Isn’t there something better we could think of?”

The world’s richest man then described the Hyperloop as a combination of Concorde, rail and air hockey table.