[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 26 (Wednesday, February 9, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H1091]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
          CALIFORNIA'S HIGH-SPEED RAIL COSTS HAVE SKYROCKETED

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, California's high-speed rail has issued a 
new draft business plan for the year 2022 that was released yesterday. 
It shows now a new price tag of $105 billion, which is an increase of 
$5 billion over the last plan we just received not too long ago.
  Now, the original price that voters agreed to back in 2008 when it 
was placed on the ballot in front of them was a $33 billion, not $105 
billion, plan.
  Notably, it will now install a second rail between the towns of 
Merced and Bakersfield. Two tracks; two tracks that won't actually 
travel at high speeds because they can't get up to speed in that amount 
of distance. Two tracks that will be calling, I guess, ghost passengers 
for people that aren't going to be using this project anyway between 
Bakersfield and Merced.
  Every transit agency in the country ought to be looking at this plan 
to see how it works. We need to be building water storage; we need to 
be spending money on forestry, because our forests burn every year, 
instead of this boondoggle, which continues to be a rat hole of good 
money for a project that isn't helping anybody.

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