Denham seeks to block federal rail funds

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Published on 02/02/2012 - 12:45 pm

Written by Business Journal staff

Congressman Jeff Denham (R-Atwater) plans to introduce an amendment to keep money in a House transportation bill from going toward California's high-speed rail project.

About 20 percent of the $260 billion bill currently being considered by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee goes to public transit projects like replacing city buses or building new transit centers.

Denham's amendment to the American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act (H.R. 7) would block the state's proposed 800-mile bullet train from receiving any of that funding, most of which is raised by the federal gas tax.

Denham and fellow representatives have stepped up their opposition to the rail project in recent months following the release of a business plan that pegged construction costs at $98 billion, a significant increase from the $40 billion that was originally called for when the plan appeared before voters in 2008.

To date, the high-speed rail project has received over $4.4 billion from the federal government and a total of $7 billion in funding to begin construction on the first phase from Merced to Bakersfield.