California Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration sued the White House this week after President Trump canceled upwards of $1 billion allocated to a high-speed rail line that -so far- does not exist.
“California on Tuesday sued the Trump administration for pulling nearly $1 billion in federal funding from the state’s high-speed rail project – a multiyear, over-budget proposal that President Trump repeatedly has mocked and Republicans have vowed to shut down,” reports Fox News.
“The Federal Railroad Administration announced last week it would not give the Golden State money awarded by Congress nearly a decade ago because not enough progress had been made on the project,” adds the article.
“The decision was precipitated by President Trump’s overt hostility to California, its challenge to his border wall initiatives, and what he called the ‘green disaster’ high-speed rail project,” the state said in the lawsuit.
Governor Gavin Newsom abruptly canceled the rail program during his State of the State address in January; saying the program was simply too expensive to complete.
“I have nothing but respect for Governor Brown’s and Governor Schwarzenegger’s vision. I share it,” Newsom said. “But let’s be real. The current project, as planned, would cost too much and take too long.”
“The Trump Administration’s action is illegal and a direct assault on California,” he said in a written statement. “This is California’s money, appropriated by Congress, and we will vigorously defend it in court.”
“While the $929 million is a critical piece of the project’s funding plan, state rail officials were not expecting to access the money until 2021, according to a recently released project update. If a court battle over the money drags on, that could put the state in position to win the money back or get more from the federal government if Democrats win the White House and control of Congress in 2020,” adds NBC.
The White House slammed Governor Newsom after the far-left leader abandoned the project; pledging to recover the $2.5 billion already spent on the rail network.
The move comes days after Newsom abruptly pardoned multiple immigrant felons to shield them from deportation by federal agents.
“I’m constantly trying to understand the moment we’re living in, the xenophobia, the nativism that marks the populism of this moment,” Newsom said. “Any of us who are students of history know that it’s not without precedent. It’s not novel. It’s hardly new. It’s very familiar.”
One of the refugees -originally from Cambodia- was arrested by federal immigration agents in March.
The man was convicted for solicitation to commit murder in 2001.