I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1515 

To direct the Secretary of Transportation to require that any discretionary 

grant funds provided by the Department of Transportation for highspeed rail development in California be reimbursed to the Federal Government and to authorize additional funds for nationally significant 

freight and highway projects. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 5, 2019 

Mr. LAMALFA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 

A BILL 

To direct the Secretary of Transportation to require that 

any discretionary grant funds provided by the Department of Transportation for high-speed rail development 

in California be reimbursed to the Federal Government 

and to authorize additional funds for nationally significant freight and highway projects. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘High-Speed Refund 

5 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) When presented to voters in 2008, Califor4 nia’s high-speed rail system was projected to cost 

5 $33.6 billion for a line from San Francisco to Ana6 heim, increasing $40 billion to add lines to Sac7 ramento and San Diego. 

8 (2) The expanded project’s cost swelled to more 

9 than $100 billion, with the San Francisco to Ana10 heim line costing more than $77 billion, and now the 

11 State of California’s high-speed rail plan no longer 

12 includes any stops in Sacramento, San Francisco, 

13 Los Angeles, Anaheim, or San Diego. 

14 (3) When presented to voters in 2008, Cali15 fornia claimed the Federal Government would pay 

16 between a quarter and a third of the cost of the rail 

17 system. 

18 (4) The Federal Government had no such grant 

19 program at the time, and the $4 billion invested in 

20 the project represents less than 5 percent of the up21 dated cost projections. 

22 (5) At the current level of project employment 

23 it would take nearly 400 years to accomplish the 

24 1,000,000 job-years promised by the California 

25 High-Speed Rail Authority. 


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1 (6) No significant private companies have in2 vested in the California high-speed rail project. 

3 (7) The grant creation and award process for 

4 the California high-speed rail project did not incor5 porate the best practices of Government funding. 

6 (8) The grant agreement between the Federal 

7 Government and California did not require a feasible 

8 funding package to be prepared before awarding 

9 funds, which similar mass transit programs require. 

10 (9) The grant agreement between the Federal 

11 Government and California did not require a min12 imum operable segment before awarding funds, 

13 which similar mass transit programs require. 

14 (10) The grant agreement between the Federal 

15 Government and California did not require new 

16 high-speed trains to run on the new high-speed rail 

17 system. 

18 (11) The Department of Transportation inap19 propriately allowed the State of California to spend 

20 Federal money without a required State funding 

21 match. 

22 (12) The California High-Speed Rail Authority 

23 repeatedly failed to meet deadlines and underesti24 mated costs. 


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1 (13) On March 5, 2019, the Federal Rail Ad2 ministration, having recognized the failure of Cali3 fornia to build even a small fraction of the originally 

4 approved high-speed rail system, deobligated nearly 

5 $1 billion in Federal funding. 

6 (14) No passenger rail system in the world has 

7 ever been fully self-sufficient. 

8 (15) There are dozens of worthy infrastructure 

9 projects that would improve the quality of life for 

10 every day Americans and could easily have been de11 signed, approved, built, and have benefitted local 

12 economies in the time it took for California’s high13 speed rail proposal to fail. 

14 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

15 It is the Sense of Congress that any future high16 speed rail grant programs that are awarded funds by the 

17 Federal Government should have similar or higher re18 quirements than existing mass transit programs. 

19 SEC. 4. TREATMENT OF FUNDS PROVIDED FOR HIGH20 SPEED RAIL DEVELOPMENT IN CALIFORNIA. 

21 (a) REIMBURSEMENT OF FUNDS.—The Secretary of 

22 Transportation shall take such action as is necessary to 

23 require that any discretionary grant funds provided to the 

24 State of California by the Department of Transportation 


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1 for high-speed rail corridor development be reimbursed to 

2 the general fund of the Treasury. 

3 (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR NA4 TIONALLY SIGNIFICANT FREIGHT AND HIGHWAY

5 PROJECTS.—Section 1101(a)(5)(E) of the FAST Act (23 

6 U.S.C. 101 note) is amended by striking ‘‘$1,000,000,000 

7 for fiscal year 2020’’ and inserting ‘‘$4,500,000,000 for 

8 fiscal year 2020’’. 

Æ 


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