What is wrong with Fresno? There are some “leaders” who do not want an audit of the biggest scam in American history.
“Facing potentially more delays and cost overruns, this most recent audit – which could potentially attempt to clawback $4 billion in federal grants – could be a death knell to the project.
Fresno leaders are split about the future of California’s high-speed rail project as the federal government plans to audit the project for fraud and waste.
They do not want to give back the $4 billion Biden gave them for this scam. Even if they keep this money, they will still need another more than $100 billion. For the next four years you know they will not get a dime. It is time to close this down.
‘A modern-day Stonehenge’: Fresno leaders split on federal decision to audit high-speed rail project
An early February report from the Inspector General ignited a new wave of scrutiny.
by Danielle Bergstrom and Omar S. Rashad, Fresnoland, 2/20/25 https://fresnoland.org/2025/02/20/a-modern-day-stonehenge-fresno-leaders-split-on-federal-decision-to-audit-high-speed-rail-project/
What’s at stake?
Facing potentially more delays and cost overruns, this most recent audit – which could potentially attempt to clawback $4 billion in federal grants – could be a death knell to the project.
Fresno leaders are split about the future of California’s high-speed rail project as the federal government plans to audit the project for fraud and waste.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Thursday at a noisy, protest-filled news conference in Los Angeles that he would direct the Federal Rail Administration to conduct a compliance review, citing the project’s ballooning costs and unclear completion date.
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“This is going to help determine whether billions of dollars in taxpayer money should remain committed to California,” Duffy said of the forthcoming compliance review.
He did not share a specific timeline for when the review would begin or be completed.
“There is no timeline in which you’re going to have a high speed rail that goes from LA to San Francisco,” Duffy said Thursday. “That timeline does not exist, and the estimates are incredibly rough on the dollar front.”
Back in 2008, voters approved nearly $10 billion in bonds to kickstart the California High Speed Rail project. At that time, it was estimated to cost $33 billion. The project was also supposed to be completed in 2020. Five years after the completion date, the project is nowhere near completion and is estimated to cost more than $100 billion in total.
At one point, Duffy gestured to protesters at the news conference and said their frustrations were misdirected.
“They should go somewhere else to the people who are making the decisions that have wasted your money — that have flushed it down a toilet,” Duffy said. “They should ask the question, ‘Who didn’t build my rail? Who got rich? What consultants? What politicians? What politicians’ husbands got rich off of this money?”
At the Los Angeles news conference, U.S. Rep. Vince Fong, whose district stretches from Clovis to Bakersfield, also joined in on bashing the high speed rail project, calling it a failure.
“This project is just not ready for prime time,” Fong said at the news conference. “There are better uses for these precious tax dollars, more water infrastructure, better forest management, more rural road safety and improving America’s supply chain.”
State Assemblymember David Tangipa, whose district includes north Fresno, Clovis, and Madera, called for more transparency, citing a bill he recently introduced in the legislature that would require the state to add more details on how it plans to secure funding for the project in future plans.
“We are going to be left with a modern day Stonehenge,” Tangipa said at the news conference. “What we are asking for today is an investigation to find the fraud, waste and abuse.”
Thursday’s announcement comes on the heels of a slough of recent critiques of the project.
In early February, the authority’s Office of the Inspector General released a report finding yet that the project isn’t on track to meet a 2033 deadline to complete the first segment, from Merced to Bakersfield.
In particular, the authority missed a key deadline — procuring the train sets for the project — in December of 2024. According to the report, the authority’s new CEO, Ian Choudri, wanted to delay this process to have staff re-evaluate how they sequence the project in order to reduce costs and save time down the road.
California Republican legislators, several from the Central Valley, sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Feb. 13, calling the project a ‘colossal failure’ and urging the administration to investigate the project, in the wake of the inspector general’s findings.
Many local Republican elected leaders have long-assailed the project, even before cost and time projections significantly derailed, citing needs for water infrastructure and dams.
But Fresno’s last three Republican mayors have all been stalwart supporters of the project.
“I continue to support high-speed rail, regardless of who builds it, as long as it connects the Central Valley to the California economy,” said Mayor Jerry Dyer, in an emailed statement Thursday afternoon.
Even as rural legislators call for redirecting funds towards water infrastructure, local economic development officials and real estate interests have championed the project as a game changer for Fresno’s economy, which has struggled for decades to attract higher-wage jobs.
But small businesses and residents, especially in Chinatown and downtown, have cautious optimism, as construction timelines have dragged and street closures have frustrated would-be customers.
On the one hand, high-speed rail has attracted significant investment state and federal investment: $66 million in climate funds for affordable housing, tree-lined streets, and parks; another $300 million promised to supercharge housing and infrastructure development downtown; and a $66 million grant from Biden’s Economic Development Administration includes plans to build a food-tech innovation headquarters near Fresno’s high-speed rail station downtown.
But the city seems forever in purgatory, always the awkward teenager with ‘so much potential,’ never quite blossoming into the economic powerhouse some have envisioned will come with high-speed rail.
It’s not the state’s first rodeo with Trump on high-speed rail.
In 2019, the Federal Railroad Administration cancelled nearly $1 billion in grants to the project, saying the state had abandoned its original vision of connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles via passenger rail.
California sued, and eventually the grant was reinstated back to the project under a settlement achieved in 2021 under President Joe Biden.
But with billions of federal funds hanging in the balance — and a $6.5 billion funding gap for the Central Valley segment of the project — high-speed rail’s future in California remains uncertain.
Former authority CEO Brian Kelly told The Fresno Bee in 2024 that it would be difficult for the project to get completed without a federal partner.
Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, an ex-oficio board member on the California High Speed Rail Authority, pointed to the project’s benefits to the region so far.
“This project has created nearly 15,000 jobs and has had a powerful impact on our region’s economy. The future of transportation starts in the heart of California — Fresno and the Central Valley,” he said, in an emailed statement.
Rep. Jim Costa, one of the project’s main champions in Congress, who represents south and central Fresno, could not be reached for comment as of Thursday afternoon.
Choudri, nearly six months into his new position running the beleaguered authority, isn’t daunted.
“We welcome this investigation and the opportunity to work with our federal partners. With multiple independent federal and state audits completed, every dollar is accounted for, and we stand by the progress and impact of this project,” he said, in an emailed statement.
