Denham Request Granted on California High-Speed Rail Audit

The Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Transportation agreed to an audit on the California High-Speed Rail Project after chronic mismanagement by the state. Continued cost overruns and a perpetually growing timeline spurred U.S. Representative Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) to request an audit in a letter to the Department of Transportation Inspector General Calvin Scovel in December 2017

“The continued mismanagement and skyrocketing costs are unacceptable. Taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent.” said U.S. Representative Jeff Denham (R-Turlock). “I will continue to provide aggressive oversight and stop all federal funding.”

The out of control project was sold to voters at a cost of $33 billion. Since then the project has been scaled back dramatically by lopping off the Sacramento and San Diego segments while ballooning to $77 billion. The State’s Legislative Analyst’s Office recently released a report detailing how project costs will continue to rise while there are “significant uncertainties regarding funding to complete” the initial operating segment. Furthermore the report concludes “it is crucial for the high-speed rail project to have a complete and viable funding plan (and) at this time, no such funding plan exists.”

In a December 2017 letter to Inspector General Calvin Scovel, Rep. Denham requested an audit of the Department of Transportation’s oversight of the California High-Speed Rail Program. Specifically calling for a review of the use of federal dollars and an analysis of the risks and reasonability of California High-Speed Rail Authority’s business plans and financial reports. In addition to the Department of Transportation’s audit, the California State Legislature’s Joint Audit Committee in January unanimously approved the first state audit since 2012 to look into these cost increases.