'This Project Is Not Viable': Doug LaMalfa Sounds Off On 'National Embarrassment' CA High Speed Rail

Forbes Breaking News

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

Transcript

00:00thank you mr. speaker so it began as a concept connect California's two largest cities with

00:12high-speed rail has become a national embarrassment and one of the most expensive boondoggles in

00:17modern infrastructure history after more than 17 years and 6.9 billion dollars in just federal

00:24money but overall 17 billion dollars raised over 17 years not a single mile of high-speed rail

00:31track has been laid just a few bridges built report released today by Secretary of Transportation Sean

00:37Duffy and the Federal Railroad Administration confirms what many of us been saying for years

00:42and years this project is not viable it's riddled with mismanagement massive cost overruns missed

00:48deadlines and fantasy level ridership projections even in the process promising at 1.1 million jobs

00:56after they got pinned down in committee at the state legislature they finally just admitted it was 1

01:01million job years which if you do the math on that if you have they claimed 10,000 workers there

01:08currently that would mean about a hundred years would equal a million job years they seem to be

01:13right on track for a hundred years of building this project it's still seven billion dollars short just

01:19to build a sliver of the segment between Merced and an Ammon Orchard somewhere outside of Bakersfield

01:24hardly the world-class system voters were promised back in 2008 the original vision for the project from SF

01:32to LA also included spurs to Sacramento and to San Diego possibly which would have been about an 800 mile

01:40network so now after well over after a decade what's left is simply the 119 mile stretch through the

01:46Central Valley I just mentioned that doesn't really connect any major metro areas and that segment is

01:52years behind the whole project should have been done by 2020 they're hoping to get that Central Valley

01:57project done by maybe 2030 and that project of the Central Valley part would only would by itself be 38.5

02:06billion the original concept of the whole thing was 33 billion from SF to LA so the total estimated cost

02:13today is a staggering 128 billion dollars as I mentioned over a 17 year period from 2008 to now

02:20they've only raised 17 heard short a hundred and ten billion dollars and they think they come to the

02:27federal government and ask for that in here are they gonna hit the taxpayers for more are they gonna pass

02:31more bonds to raise a hundred and ten billion what five or six times more than what they've already

02:35raised over 17 years there's no serious plan to even secure that kind of money no credible timeline

02:43to finish the construction and no evidence that California high-speed rail authority is even capable

02:48of delivering or operating the system the authority has mailed has failed to meet even the most basic

02:54terms of its federal grant agreements that's why I'm so pleased Secretary Duffy has taken a good hard

03:00look at this and come up with the collusion they have they've not acted in good faith they've downplayed

03:06the risks and they run out of time and money basically the voters the people everybody's been lied to in

03:11order to keep this project alive even Governor Newsom but the first week or two he was in office as

03:17governor and for a moment there he said you know maybe we need to relook at this thing because it's not

03:23going very well but he must have got a hot set of phone calls from some angry donors or somewhere in

03:30the system in Sacramento because he got right back on track so to speak so the Trump administration is

03:36right put this project on notice claw back whatever federal money is still unwasted in that and make sure

03:43not a single dollar goes forward to this boondoggle as a Californian I can see plenty of other needs that we

03:49have that are grave such as our water infrastructure our electricity infrastructure our highways and

03:55levees to prevent prevent floods I would probably dwell mostly on on the water supply situation as

04:01it more and more of it seems to be devoted to fish running it right out to the Pacific Ocean and less and

04:07less agriculture being planted and operated in California including the issue we're gonna have

04:12in the San Joaquin Valley where more acres have taken out which creates a higher dust situation which

04:17contributes more to what's known as valley fever a big problem instead they want to put so-called

04:23solar farms calling solar panels farms is an insult anyway so much of California's food excuse me the

04:29nation's food supply comes from California the specialty crops tomatoes almonds pistachios so many things that

04:37America consumes many of these crops are 100 percent grown in California or 90 plus percent grown in

04:42California and yet they still want to keep wasting money on this high-speed rail boondoggle that as I

04:48said is a hundred and ten billion dollars short of today's projections of finishing this thing when

04:53they've only raised 17 billion over 17 years certainly it's shown that it can't deliver on this project

05:01shift it to something else we could build 25 large dams and store enough water to grow everything we'd ever

05:08want to grow and kill them as time has expired it's time to focus on infrastructure that really makes

05:12a difference for Californians the American people and keeping food on the table I yield back

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