Denham amendment to block bullet train funding

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Published on 06/28/2012 - 1:58 pm

Written by Business Journal staff

California's high-speed rail project to begin in Central Valley with $6 billionRep. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) introduced an amendment to the Legislature's transportation funding bill that would block money from pouring into California's bullet train project.

The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriation Act of 2013, or HR 5972, would provide a total of $51.6 in federal funding.

Of that, $17.6 billion would be set aside for the Department of Transportation for railroad, highway and aviation improvement projects.

Under Denham's proposed amendment, funding from the bill would be prohibited for use by the California High-Speed Rail Authority or any other actions related to the state's high-speed rail project.

"I stand with the majority of Californians who see this project as a billion dollar waste and will keep fighting to ensure their hard-earned dollars aren’t thrown at a project that Californians don’t want, we can’t afford, and is not shovel ready to create the immediate jobs we need,” Denham said in a statement.

The $68 billion project calls for 520-miles of steel track linking San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2030.

So far, the California High-Speed Rail Authority has  $3.3 billion of federal funding in hand to begin the project's 120-mile stretch between Madera and Bakersfield while another $2.7 billion is expected to come from the Prop 1A voter-approved bonds.