Chairman Comer Investigates California’s High-Speed Rail Boondoggle

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today is launching an investigation into federal funding provided to the California High-Speed Rail Authority and whether it knowingly misrepresented the ridership projections and financial viability of the California High-Speed Rail Project to secure federal and state funds. In a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy, Chairman Comer requests a staff-level briefing, documents, and communications related to California’s high-speed rail boondoggle. 

“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating federal funding sent to the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA or Authority). As part of our investigation, we are seeking to understand whether the Authority knowingly misrepresented the ridership projections and the associated financial viability of the California High-Speed Rail Project (CHSR Project) to secure federal and state funds,” wrote Chairman Comer. “The Committee requests a staff-level briefing, documents, and communications related to CHSRA.”

In 2008, Californians approved $9.95 billion dollars of state bond funding to build an 800-mile high-speed rail network connecting Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the Central Valley to coastal cities with a completion date of 2020 and a cost of $33 billion. To date, not one route is complete, and the California High-Speed Rail Authority is facing financial collapse. Current cost estimates range from $89 billion to $128 billion. Despite this, the Biden Administration committed roughly $4 billion in federal taxpayer dollars to the California High-Speed Rail Project, including almost $89.65 million dollars in the closing days of the Administration. In June 2025, the DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a Compliance Review Report outlining CHSRA’s mismanagement and wasted federal taxpayer dollars. Following this comprehensive review, Secretary Duffy announced the FRA terminated approximately $4 billion in unspent federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project.

“The Authority’s apparent repeated use of misleading ridership projections, despite longstanding warnings from experts, raises serious questions about whether funds were allocated under false pretenses. The massive cost overruns and lack of progress warrant a reassessment of whether CHSRA acted with transparency and complied with the law,” continued Chairman Comer.

Read the letter to DOT Secretary Duffy here.