House Republicans Target California High-Speed Rail Funds
SAN JOSE (KCBS) - Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have set their sights on California's High Speed Rail project. Specifically, they pressed forward with a plan to strip $2 billion in funding for the transit plan.
KCBS' Matt Bigler Reports:
Since taking control of the House in November's election, the GOP leadership introduced the American Recovery and Reinvestment Rescission Act, which would take back the final $12 billion in federal stimulus funds and return it to the U.S. Treasury.
The largest portion of the remaining funds was allocated for California's High Speed Rail project, which Democrats insisted would create thousands of jobs.
"So what we really have here is the heart of the philosophical difference between the Republicans who say the economy will be better if we cut back spending, and Democrats who say the economy will be better if we use this money to stimulate jobs," explained KCBS political analyst Larry Gerston.
High Speed Rail officials maintained there was no reason to panic because the long term benefits of the project were too great for Congress to actually go through with the stripping of federal funds. However, without the federal funding, the project wouldn't have enough cash to start construction as anticipated, in 2012.
San Francisco's Doyle Drive replacement project also hung in the balance, because it had been granted $46 million from the federal stimulus package.
Fresh off their midterm victory, House Republicans declared that returning the final $12 billion in stimulus funds would help to quell the swelling federal deficit.
Even if the measure passed in the House, Gerston pointed out that it had little chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
"It's hard to believe that at this point in the time the Democratic Senate is going to roll over just because the Republicans in the House now have a majority. What we're likely to see is a lot of gridlock, and this is a case in point."
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