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 application for $536 million in federal funds to move forward with the state’s long-awaited high-speed rail network.

The monies would come from funds already allocated in general to "federal-state partnership[s] for intercity passenger rail grants" through the 2021 "Bipartisan Infrastructure Law" and made available via the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024.

Democrats urged Secretary Pete Buttigieg to approve the funds, saying progress on the "California Phase I Corridor" is "essential to enhancing our nation’s and California’s strategic transportation network investments."

"The Phase 1 Corridor aims to address climate concerns, promote health, improve access and connectivity, and boost economic vitality, while addressing current highway and rail capacity constraints," a letter to the outgoing Cabinet member read.

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Drafted by Sen.-elect Adam Schiff, Sen. Alex Padilla, and California Democratic Reps. Jim Costa, Zoe Lofgren and Pete Aguilar, the letter calls for the funds to go to two projects in particular: tunneling through the Tehachapi Mountains in Southern California and through the Pacheco Pass of the Diablo Mountains in Northern California.

"These investments will continue to support living wage jobs, provide small business opportunities, and equitably enhance the mobility of communities in need – including disadvantaged agricultural communities – all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Schiff and the other lawmakers wrote.

"Please consider the enormous value and meaningful impact that FSP-National grant funding will provide to advancing CAHSR beyond the Central Valley," they told Buttigieg.

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

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According to California Republicans, the overall 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 consider a costly and unfruitful endeavor.

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 single greatest example of government waste in United States history – and that is California’s high-speed-rail boondoggle," Kiley said.

The official DOGE X account also described both California’s high-speed rail expenditures and requested funding in a November tweet.

Earlier this month, Ramaswamy also called the plans a "wasteful vanity project" that burned "billions in taxpayer cash with little prospect of completion in the next decade."

He said Trump "correctly" rescinded $1 billion in federal funding for the project in 2019 and lamented President Biden’s reversal of that move.

"Time to end the waste," Ramaswamy said.

California’s top state Senate Republican echoed the DOGE leaders’ concerns.

"California's 'train to nowhere' has already wasted billions of taxpayer dollars – now Biden wants all Americans to fund this boondoggle," State Sen. Brian W. Jones of San Diego told Fox News Digital.

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

If approved, the federal funds will be bolstered by $134 million in state monies 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" which was also presented in a white paper. Though it has not yet come to fruition, Musk said at the time he had thought whether there is a better way to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco than what California has proposed.

"The high-speed rail that’s being proposed would actually be the slowest bullet train in the world and the most expensive per-mile," he said. "Isn’t there something better that we can come up with?"

The world’s richest man described Hyperloop at the time as a combination of a Concorde, a rail gun and an air-hockey table.