Jeff Denham: “I thank the gentleman from California. I, as many other Californians at one time, supported the California high-speed…”

“I thank the gentleman from California. I, as many other Californians at one time, supported the California high-speed rail project. It was initially supposed to be a $33 billion project with equal amounts coming not only from the California taxpayers, in the form of a bond, but also private investors and the Federal Government. Yet this $33 billion project has ballooned up to $100 billion. So what do they do for cost controls? They cut off the very legs that Mr. LaMalfa talked about, the section going to Sacramento, the section going to San Diego; but, still, it is a $68 billion project with a more than $26 billion hole just in the first initial operating segment alone. Tomorrow, as chair of the Subcommittee on Railroads, we will be discussing a review of the challenges facing California's high-speed rail. I want to reiterate I believe that high-speed rail is our future. I believe that as a growing economy, with more trucks and goods movement on the road, with more goods movement on rail that we have to look at alternative opportunities to move people. High-speed rail is one of those opportunities. But in Florida, a project that is being done by private investors will have no ongoing subsidy. They need no Federal dollars. Texas will have its own high-speed rail system, again, with private dollars, no ongoing subsidy.…”