The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) on May 16 canceled nearly $1 billion in high-speed rail grants issued to the California High Speed Rail Authority. The federal government canceled the grants in response to the state’s failure to comply with the terms of the original 2010 agreement and failure to make reasonable progress on the project, according to the notice.

 

DOT had notified California rail officials in February that it intended to cancel $929 million in grants for construction of the high-speed rail system between Los Angeles and San Francisco. DOT officials also announced that they were “actively exploring every legal option” to recoup $2.5 billion that was previously granted to the project for allegedly violating terms of funding.

 

The California High Speed Rail Authority filed a federal lawsuit challenging the DOT decision on May 21.

 

Read more about this story in the March edition of The Checks and Balances Letter, the monthly newsletter from Ballotpedia’s Administrative State Project.