MUST READ: Secretary Sean P. Duffy Op-Ed: Gov. Newsom is suing me to build a multi-billion dollar train to nowhere

Op-Ed
The Sacramento Bee

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Gov. Gavin Newsom has no clue what functional government looks like. California just spent 16 years and $15 billion to develop a high-speed rail network that has yet to lay a single track and he’s still defending the project. In fact, he’s suing to protect this multi-billion-dollar train to nowhere.

Recently, as transportation secretary, I turned off the spigot of federal funding for California’s high-speed rail. This move saved taxpayers $4 billion, officially rescinded from what has become a humiliating emblem of government waste. In response, Newsom filed a lawsuit as if California hasn’t burned enough money already.

What was supposed to be a line from Los Angeles to San Francisco for $33 billion (already an inflated price tag) completed by 2020 has morphed into a colossal boondoggle projected to cost over three times the original estimate. Years later, there is still no train on the horizon after planners trimmed their ambition from connecting California’s largest cities to building a 170-mile track between Merced and Bakersfield.

California’s bullet train project is now estimated to cost $135 billion. Let’s put that figure into perspective: For the same amount of money, Newsom could buy every San Francisco and Los Angeles resident almost 200 round trip flights between cities. The federal government could also build 10 aircraft carriers or overhaul our air traffic control system three to four times over.

While running for governor in 2018, Newsom conceded, “The project is years and years behind, the project is wildly over budget.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea,” he added.

That was seven years ago. And, actually, any project that is both “years and years behind” and “wildly over budget” is, in fact, a “bad idea.” That’s why after an exhaustive review of the project’s mismanagement, delays and cost overruns, I officially pulled the plug on this outrageous waste of taxpayer resources.

Newsom characterized my decision as “another political stunt to punish California.” But this isn’t a blue state issue. Texas is no stranger to trains to nowhere, and I did not hesitate to pull funding for the red state’s failure.

In April, I saved taxpayers more than $60 million by terminating a grant with Amtrak for the Texas Central Railway project. A capital cost projection of more than $40 billion for a 240-mile train makes delivering taxpayer dollars to the rail network government malpractice at best. No honest leader can examine these massive rail projects and continue to pump them with additional resources in good faith. If private industry supports high-speed rail, then the private industry can pay for it.

President Donald Trump and I are committed to building big, beautiful infrastructure for the future — not trains to nowhere. But that’s what these bullet train projects have become: bureaucratic shams blowing big money from the taxpayer.

As transportation secretary, I want Americans to have access to high-speed rail more than anyone. Too often, however, government is a barrier rather than a partner. Money meant for construction gets gobbled up by consultants fed by a steady stream of government grants.

We must make sure American tax dollars are spent effectively today so we can use additional resources for projects that will have a real impact tomorrow.

The Hoover Dam took five years to build. The Golden Gate Bridge took four. Both were built when the federal government was a fraction of its size today. The president and I are eager to build big, beautiful things again. No more trains to nowhere.