Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told Newsmax Wednesday that she will reveal several "billion-dollar boondoggles" in a report she is releasing on transportation projects across the United States that have gone off track, such as the California high-speed railroad project that President Donald Trump cut funds from earlier this summer.
"That California crazy gravy train, it is totally off the rails," Ernst told "Wake Up America." "It is way, way past the time of completion, and with that $100 billion that they are over budget, not even a single rail has been laid on that project."
Trump announced in June that $4 billion in federal funds would be cut from the project after a Transportation Department report from the Federal Railroad Administration cited a pattern of missed deadlines, budget shortfalls, and questionable ridership projections.
The California High-Speed Rail project is now $95 billion over budget and has a revised launch date of no earlier than 2030, reported The Washington Free Beacon on Wednesday.
Ernst's report details 13 infrastructure projects funded by the DOT and other government agencies that are collectively $163 billion over their budgets.
The senator, who was behind a law earlier this year requiring that the DOT report projects that have gone far past their budgets or are facing excessive delays, told Newsmax that Congress must include the California delay in its next rescissions package, so taxpayers will not need to suffer.
"In this report that I am releasing today, what you will find are additional boondoggles," she said. "We will be encouraging the administration to claw back and save our taxpayers money. We're also attempting to pass a law that through all agencies, if you are more than $1 billion over budget or five years behind on your project, it gets scrutinized and reviewed, and we'll have full transparency for the American taxpayer."
Contractors, she added, must be pressed to remain on budget.
"This would be unacceptable if we were anywhere else," said Ernst.
"The California gravy train … Nancy Pelosi's high-speed rail, I mean, that is outrageous," she added. "We need to end those projects. If we don't see results, they need to go away. That's what the president is doing. We need to codify it. And again, I've identified those in my latest edition of identifying boondoggles in the federal government. And just five of the projects that I've outlined in this report would save taxpayers over $160 billion."
Ernst's report also points out the Honolulu Rail Transit project, which remains 11 years behind schedule and is $4.8 billion over budget.
Ernst also on Wednesday commended Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins after the announcement that the department's staff will be moved out of the D.C. area.
"I've actually had two acts in the past, my For Sale Act, which is where I have said underutilized federal government buildings should be sold," she said. "We can consolidate agencies into locations that make sense. But I've also had my Swamp Act, which would require that 30% of the personnel working in these D.C.-headquartered agencies go out into the United States of America."
The USDA, she added, is a "prime example of this."
"Why on earth are all of these employees sitting here in D.C.?" she said. "The Swamp Act and the For Sale Act are again saving our taxpayers millions upon millions of dollars."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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