Newou can listen to Fox News articles!
More than a dozen federal infrastructure projects have exceeded at least $162 billion, according to a new Senate Doge Caucus report that claimed Dot secretary Sean Duffy was needed to reveal data that the Biden administration had not released.
Senate President R-Iowa, Chairman Joni Ernst, used California’s decades-old high-speed rail projects as a Boondoggle benchmark and shared with a report from Fox News Digital that laid out details of all federal infrastructure projects with budgets of over $100 million, five years or more deadlines, or both.
“To reach $1 billion in budget is not a rounding error. It’s a wreck of a financial train,” Ernst told Fox News Digital.
According to the Caucus report, if the data could be further delved into, the $162.9 billion budget figure accumulated in all listed projects is likely “floor.”
“We are excited to work with the Trump administration to refund California’s Crazy Train, but it’s time for these other Bundoguru to meet the same fate,” Ernst continued. “Incorporating these five rail projects in future retirement packages will save taxpayers billions more than their first retirement package.”
“Not only are we five years behind schedule, we’re not just losing track of time, we’re totally off track,” she said.
R-Ill. Ernst and Mariannette Miller-Meeks of the committee have also introduced a $1 billion Boondoggle Act, which requires all federal agencies to report on projects that are significantly delayed or exceeded budgets.
Republican senators roll out Doge budget proposal for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”
In one case, including the allocation of a 14-mile Minneapolis light rail expansion, it suffered for years, doubling the price tag to its current $2.74 billion.
It is called the “Cost List Public Work Project” [in Minnesota] The state’s history, “The project was defended by Rep. Ilhan Omar as important to the community given the 2020 “Fallout of George Floyd’s Murder.”
“This project will help us get back on track,” Omar said in a statement at the time.
Another railway project in Honolulu needs to complete another $9.9 billion, according to the report. This quotes that figure as about half of the overall Hawaiian average annual budget.
The rail lines, the report said, are sometimes recorded slower than rush hour traffic, but are around $4.5 billion above the budget.
The crown jewel of the schedule project behind the budget mentioned in the report is California’s high speed rail. This is a venture that spans multiple governorate administrations.
A 2018 letter from the state auditor’s office contained in the document showed that about 800 miles of projects have been launched during the Obama administration, when states discovered that states were seeking federal funds before the reservoir process was completed before the Obama administration was fully completed.
Fast Rails are not California’s only expensive boodoggle
The federal government has approved about $7 billion, with about half of which not relying on it, but the overall project is projected to cost $128 billion. Overrun of $95 billion.
Apart from the statewide project, the report includes a photo of D-Calif Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who signs her name on a concrete wall that appears to be an extension of San Francisco’s Caltrain system.
“This is about saving the planet. It’s about clean air. It’s about people. It’s about air quality. It’s about quality of life, the quality of people who don’t need to be in the car for a long stint that increases pollution, but still get in and out of work more quickly,” Pelosi said.
The report says projects under two miles are expected to be one of the most expensive forward directions in the world.
That $8 billion project connects the state’s future high-speed rail system, Caltrain, and local railroads through a tunnel between the end of the current Caltrain line south of Salesforce Center and Business District.
Another project will extend the BART system south of the current edge near SFO, passing through Norman Y. Mineta International Airport in San Jose, then turn north on the other side of the bay to end in Silicon Valley and Verissa, California.
Ernst reports that Pelosi tried to insert another nine-digit allocation for the Silicon Valley Project into the Covid-19 relief bill, but was rejected by the senator.
Click here to get the Fox News app
California’s high-speed rail “BOONDOGGLE” will one day cross the bridge over Fresno’s CA-99. (Reuters)
The fewer other projects listed in the report are included in Iowa, her own state, for reasons of being late. There, Interstate 80 and Interstate 29 will temporarily converge on the council’s bluff before the former crosses the Missouri River to Omaha, Nebraska.
On the East Coast, the project unlocking the exchange between New Jersey’s “42 Freeway,” Interstate 295 and the Walt Whitman Bridge in Philadelphia, was listed as past years.
According to a report by Doge, the project, which consists of several related contracts, began in 2013 and received more than $1 billion in federal funds while Trenton oversees it.
Inside the Beltway, the Fed has contributed billions to Maryland’s “Purple Line” commuter rail projects.
Additionally, Duffy told Fox News Digital that he fully supports Senate Doge’s efforts.
“If you’re receiving taxpayer dollars, you should expect Americans to be held accountable,” the secretary said.
“There is no better Bundogur. We would like to thank Senator Ernst for his leadership in Congress to ensure that the federal dollar is being used effectively and efficiently.”
Charles Kraitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers the media, politics and culture of Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
Source link