With the current rail project running to an expected 10 Billion (or likely much more) the current FTA contribution is just 15%, of which less than 7% has actually been given to HART. Therefore a small fraction of the rail cost.

The FTA administrator quit and went to work for AECOM, another HART rail contractor, so a new one will be appointed by Elaine Chao, Trump's new Secretary of Transportation. The whole project could be changed by that. The FTA should come out to Hawaii and tell everyone what they plan to do now. Caldwell likely doesn't want to see that happen...