Jeff Denham: “This is a very simple amendment. Again, it reads: ``None of the funds made available by this Act may be used for…”

“This is a very simple amendment. Again, it reads: ``None of the funds made available by this Act may be used for high-speed rail in the State of California or for the California High- Speed Rail Authority.'' As chair of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, I am a big supporter of high-speed rail. I have seen some of the greatest high-speed rail in other countries, and here, even in the United States, we are going to see the first high-speed rail in Texas and then in Florida--two projects that are moving forward with private dollars. Yet, in California, in 2008, we passed Proposition 1A, which was a guarantee to the voters that a $33 billion project would not only be built but would be built on time, with equal parts of funding from the State voters, from the Federal Government, hopefully, and then from the private investors. Today, 5 years later, after $3.8 billion in stimulus funds for shovel-ready projects were dedicated to this, still not one shovel is in the ground. It is a project that has been held up in court. The $9.95 billion cannot be used, and there are no private investors. So the question is: Why should the Federal Government be putting more money into a project that is nonexistent today? It is a project that, even by its own definition, is $32 billion short, not in the project, but in the initial operating segment, which is guaranteed to the voters to be completed. This is a project that has grown out of control.…”