'I Have Good News For Californians...': Kiley Celebrates 'Beginning Of The End For High Speed Rail'

During remarks on the House floor, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) tore into California's high speed rail project.

Transcript

00:00I have good news for Californians. Today is the beginning of the end of high-speed rail,

00:14the biggest public infrastructure disaster in U.S. history. A few months ago, I joined

00:19Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy in Los Angeles to announce an investigation and

00:23compliance review into the state's high-speed rail project. And today, we got the results.

00:29That the state, with respect to $4 billion in grants that it took, is woefully out of

00:34compliance with the conditions of those grants. And fundamentally, the audit found that this

00:39project has no viable path forward. Of course, we've known that for a long time. They've spent

00:44$17 billion and haven't laid any track. The New York Times found the project is not on track to

00:50be completed this century and will be $100 billion over budget. They initially told us that we'd have

00:55an LA to San Francisco high-speed train by the year 2020. Now, even the modest initial segment

01:01from Bakersfield to Merced is going to miss its 2033 deadline. And even if the train were to magically

01:07come into existence today, it would be decades-old technology. It is time to end this embarrassment

01:12for our state once and for all and use our transportation dollars in ways that will actually

01:17benefit the quality of life of Californians. I yield back.