US Cancels $929M In California Rail Funds After State Sued Trump

After taking on the Congress with a partial shutdown of the government, President Donald Trump showed that he would not compromise on the Mexico wall funding issue. Now it seems, Trump has a California time and the state is at the receiving end of his wrath.

The Federal rail agency has canceled $929 million funding for the California high-speed rail project and is planning to take back $2.5 billion it has already given to the state.

The provocation seems to be California and 15 other states suing “the President’s ‘national emergency to raise funds for the wall at US-Mexico border.”

The Federal Railroad Administration in a letter told California authorities that funding will be halted as the state “failed to make reasonable progress” and cited the Governor’s statement that the project would be scaled back.

California Governor Gavin Newsom had recently stated that it may prune the $77.3 billion high-speed rail project to overcome cost hikes and delays.

Trump said California project costlier than border wall

In a statement, California Governor Newsom alleged that the administration’s cancellation of funds came within 24 hours after California and 15 other states challenged the “president’s farcical national emergency.”

Governor Newsom called the action political retribution by President Trump and warned California is not going to sit idle.

“This is California’s money, and we are going to fight for it," the Governor declared.

Newsom also referred to a tweet by the President where Trump mocked the “failed Fast Train project in California where cost overruns are becoming world record setting.” Trump also called the project “hundreds of times more expensive than the desperately needed Wall.”

In their legal challenge, the 16 U.S. states said Trump’s emergency would make them lose huge federal funding running into millions of dollars devoted to National Guard units that handle counter-drug activities. They said diversion of those funds for construction projects would ruin their economies.

Modified rail plan rejected

That the Trump administration will not accept the Governor’s new rail project plan was clear from the statement of Federal Railroad Administrator Ronald Batory. He said Newsom’s new plan represents a “significant retreat from the state’s initial vision and frustrates the purpose for which federal funding was awarded.”

California’s high-speed rail project was aimed at connecting eight of the largest cities in the state with bullet trains. The plan approved in 2008 has been facing protests and lawsuits forcing the state rail authority to rework the original plan.

In Phase one of the project, the plan was to connect downtown San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Anaheim with cities in the Central Valley in a 520-mile long stretch. The early deadline for its completion was 2029 which has now been pushed to 2033.