Andrew Kerr of the Washington Free Beacon highlights a disturbing new report from Capitol Hill.
California’s long-troubled high-speed rail project is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to taxpayer-funded infrastructure boondoggles, according to a new report from Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) first obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
With an original completion date of 2020, the California High-Speed Rail Project has now gone $95 billion over budget with a revised launch date no earlier than 2030, leading the Trump administration to pull $4 billion in unspent federal funding from the troubled effort in July. But the rail project represents just one of 13 infrastructure projects funded by the Department of Transportation and other federal agencies that are collectively $163 billion over budget, according to the Ernst report.
“Slamming the brakes on the California Crazy Train, that I fought for years to defund, was a strong start but there is a lot more work to do,” Ernst told the Free Beacon. “Today, I am exposing more than $160 billion in boondoggles that need to be brought to a squealing halt to claw funds back in a future rescissions package.”
Ernst’s report, which Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy endorsed in a statement Wednesday, underscores the extent to which taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects often turn into money holes that swallow more government dollars than anticipated.
“If you’re receiving taxpayer dollars, you should expect to be held accountable by the American people. No more boondoggles!” Duffy told the Free Beacon. “Thank you, Senator Ernst, for your leadership in Congress to ensure federal dollars are being used effectively and efficiently.”
Ernst said it’s no coincidence that the bulk of the troubled infrastructure projects are located in California, where former speaker of the State Assembly Willie Brown once boasted about deploying bait-and-switch budgeting tactics to secure taxpayer funding for doomed infrastructure projects.
