[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 82 (Thursday, May 15, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H2057-H2058]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       GOVERNOR NEWSOM BACKS DOWN

  (Mr. Kiley of California was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, yesterday California Governor 
Gavin Newsom finally backed down from his irresponsible, reckless 
policy of providing full-scope Medicaid, Medi-Cal coverage to every 
person who is income eligible in our State illegally. Of course, the 
Governor did not do the right thing on his own but only in response to 
the pressure that we have brought to bear.
  It has been painfully obvious that this policy, which no other State 
in the country has, was utterly unsustainable and was threatening the 
solvency of Medicaid in California itself. The cost has ballooned for 
this year to $10 billion, over three times what was initially 
estimated. The Governor has had to take out an emergency loan and then 
separately go to the legislature in the middle of the year for a 
bailout.
  The Governor has finally acknowledged this, that the policy should 
never have been enacted, and he has said he is going to freeze any new 
enrollment by adults who are in our country illegally.
  However, the Governor is only partially reversing his policy. Indeed, 
by the time this freeze goes into effect, we will have already spent 
$23 billion that could have gone toward improving access to care for 
legal California residents.
  The partial repeal is not a solution. For one thing, it will continue 
to cost us enormous sums in State tax dollars. For another, it could 
lead to the loss of billions and billions of dollars every year in 
Federal funding.
  As I called on the Governor before to repeal this policy, as I have 
introduced legislation requiring him to do so, I am now calling on 
Governor Newsom not to go halfway but to completely reverse this 
reckless, disastrous policy that no other State in the country has.


                    Absolute Definition of Insanity

  Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, yesterday Governor Newsom 
introduced his budget proposal in Sacramento and has decided to double

[[Page H2058]]

State funding for high-speed rail. This is the absolute definition of 
insanity. It has been some 16 years, 17 years since the project was 
approved. They have spent $17 billion, and there has not been a single 
passenger.
  Even under the most wildly optimistic scenarios, we are going to have 
a line from Palmdale to Gilroy in 20 years that will require 2 hours of 
additional travel on each end to get from San Francisco to L.A. In 20 
years, riders will be able to get from San Francisco to L.A. in 6 
hours, something you can do on a plane in 1 hour today.

  This project has been called a project that won't even be built 
within the next century by even sources like The New York Times. I have 
introduced legislation to eliminate all future Federal funding for 
high-speed rail. The Governor continues to believe that Federal funding 
will come. It is not going to come. There is currently an investigation 
by the Department of Transportation as well, and I have asked for an 
investigation by FBI Director Kash Patel to look into exactly where all 
of this money went.
  It is time to end this irresponsible failure of a project--the 
biggest public infrastructure failure in U.S. history--once and for all 
and put our transportation dollars where they are needed: toward 
improving our roads, repairing potholes, alleviating traffic, on things 
that will actually benefit the quality of life for Californians.

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