{"id":1547926,"date":"2025-07-19T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1547926"},"modified":"2025-07-19T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T22:00:00","slug":"california-sues-trump-administration-over-termination-of-high-speed-rail-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/california-sues-trump-administration-over-termination-of-high-speed-rail-funding\/1547926\/","title":{"rendered":"California Sues Trump Administration Over Termination Of High-Speed Rail Funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Sues Trump Administration Over Termination Of High-Speed Rail Funding<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

California sued the Trump administration on July 17 over its decision to revoke $4 billion in federal grants for the state\u2019s high-speed rail project<\/strong>, calling the move politically motivated and illegal.<\/p>\n

A drone view of a California High-Speed Rail bridge where it crosses through Fresno, Calif., on June 8, 2025. REUTERS\/Fred Greaves\/File Photo<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the lawsuit<\/a> in a press release, accusing the administration of using the federal grant termination as retribution against California.<\/strong> The state claims the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) ended two grant agreements without cause, despite the project meeting its obligations under federal oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reality, this is just a heartless attack on the Central Valley that will put real jobs and livelihoods on the line,\u201d Newsom said in the release. \u201cWe\u2019re suing to stop Trump from derailing America\u2019s only high-speed rail actively under construction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), which filed the suit, said in a post<\/a> on X that \u201ccanceling these grants without cause isn\u2019t just wrong, it\u2019s illegal<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

CHSRA said it has met every requirement under its agreements, pointing to multiple federal reviews\u2014including one as recent as February\u2014that found the project to be in compliance.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit argues that President Donald Trump\u2019s actions are part of a long-running pattern of political retaliation, pointing to his first administration\u2019s attempt to revoke high-speed rail funding the day after California sued<\/a> to block his emergency declaration for a border wall.<\/p>\n

In both instances, California claims, the timing and public remarks show the decisions were driven by personal animus, not project performance.<\/p>\n

The state also claims that the FRA ignored its own oversight record. As recently as October 2024, the agency completed an annual monitoring review and \u201cmade no findings for which corrective measures were needed,\u201d <\/strong>according to the suit.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit says the abrupt reversal in Trump\u2019s second term was unjustified and that CHSRA was given inadequate time to respond.<\/p>\n

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced<\/a> the termination on July 16, following what the FRA described as an exhaustive compliance review. He said CHSRA failed to meet critical benchmarks, citing a $7 billion funding gap, missed procurement deadlines, and a lack of capacity to deliver the project\u2019s first operating segment by 2033.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is California\u2019s fault,\u201d Duffy said in a statement. \u201cGovernor Newsom and the complicit Democrats have enabled this waste for years. Federal dollars are not a blank check\u2013they come with a promise to deliver results. After over a decade of failures, CHSRA\u2019s mismanagement and incompetence have proven it cannot build its train to nowhere on time or on budget. It\u2019s time for this boondoggle to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

The administration argues the funds would be better spent on projects with clearer timelines and viable completion plans<\/strong>. The FRA said CHSRA\u2019s responses to its findings were inadequate and did not address concerns outlined in a 300-page review.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, however, says the FRA\u2019s case rests on a mischaracterization of CHSRA\u2019s own Inspector General (IG). After the agency cited the IG\u2019s report to support its funding gap concerns, the Office of the Inspector General-California High Speed Rail (OIG-HSR) issued a letter disavowing that interpretation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have identified no citations by the FRA supporting its assertion that the OIG-HSR ever made this conclusion<\/strong>,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n

CHSRA says it is nearing the track-laying phase, with 171 miles under active construction, more than 50 major structures completed, and more than 15,000 jobs created. Environmental reviews for 463 miles of the corridor are complete, and the agency expects passenger service to begin between 2030 and 2033.<\/p>\n

The rail project, initially pitched in 2008 as an 800-mile line connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles by 2020, has since been scaled back to a 171-mile segment from Merced to Bakersfield. Projected costs have risen to an estimated $135 billion, according to the Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n

Last month, the department warned<\/a> that federal funding was at risk if California failed to resolve what it called a pattern of mismanagement and unrealistic projections. CHSRA rejected those claims, arguing the project remained on track with state support and that federal findings ignored recent progress.<\/p>\n

In this week\u2019s lawsuit, California asked the court to block the FRA\u2019s termination decision and allow the state to retain the remaining federal grant funds.<\/p>\n

The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSat, 07\/19\/2025 – 14:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/california-sues-trump-administration-over-termination-high-speed-rail-funding<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California Sues Trump Administration Over Termination Of High-Speed Rail Funding Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), California sued the Trump administration…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1547927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1547926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1547926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1547927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1547926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1547926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1547926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}