Trump v California: administration wants to get billions in rail funding back
Source: The Guardian
US transportation department also announced plans to cancel $929m in grant funds that were yet to be paid, in latest point of friction
One week after Donald Trump called California’s high-speed rail project a “‘green’ disaster”, the US Department of Transportation announced plans to cancel $929m in federal grant funds that were yet to be paid toward the $77bn endeavor.
The department also “is actively exploring every legal option to seek the return from California of $2.5bn in federal funds FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) previously granted,” according to the statement released Tuesday.
The moves come a week after California Governor Gavin Newsom said during his state of the state address, that the high-speed railway project as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long”. Opponents of the ambitious project interpreted his comments as a declaration that “the train to nowhere has finally stopped” and that Newsom was canceling the leg of the plan that extended the railway from San Francisco to Los Angeles. But Newsom’s office later clarified that he meant only that “we have to be realistic about the project”.
In response to Newsom’s remarks, Trump sent out a tweet asking for the return of “three and a half billion dollars”. Newsom responded by tweeting that the money was “allocated by Congress for this project. We’re not giving it back”.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/19/high-speed-rail-california-trump-funds
Hey Trump did you read between the lines, Newsom basically told you to pound sand............................
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