Sacramento-area congressman Kevin Kiley took to the floor of the House of Representatives recently to declare the following:

“Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to report that the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency has honed in on perhaps the single-greatest example of government waste in United States history,” the Republican from Rocklin intoned. “And that is California’s high-speed-rail boondoggle.”

The Department of Government Efficiency is not an official arm of the federal bureaucracy, but rather is the brainchild of President-elect Donald Trump. To lead it, he appointed Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, and former Republican presidential opponent Vivek Ramaswamy, himself a billionaire.

Its mission: To ferret out of the U.S. government all the waste and make it run more efficiently. DOGE is to report its findings to Trump and Congress, who can then decide what to cut.

Such a grand idea to tee up something Kiley already hated.

He took five minutes on the House floor to announce he would sponsor a bill to end all federal subsidies for the high-speed rail project. He even suggested redirecting the billions that the bullet train needs for construction so the money could be spent instead on road repairs.

There was curious irony with that proposal: High-speed trains are meant to get people out of their cars and off the roads.

It would be the height of government inefficiency to quit backing California’s high-speed train project now.

For one thing, more than $13 billion has already been spent, including construction on rail lines and bridges in Fresno County.

Are taxpayers to get absolutely nothing for that investment? Kiley’s strategy would make it so.

I asked him in an email what should be done with the projects that have already been completed if no more federal money is forthcoming. He avoided a direct answer. “Our goal is to end the project and spare taxpayers the added $100 billion the project will cost. Federal transportation dollars should support our roads and regional transit.”

Rail as a punching bag

Kiley is not the first Republican to use high-speed rail as a political punching bag. Ever since it was first imagined by former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, the GOP has been dead-set against the project, regardless of the benefits it posed.

There is no question high-speed rail is seriously expensive. Originally promoted to voters as a $33 billion project, the rail authority now estimates it will cost $106 billion for full service from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The federal government has already spent $6.8 billion on the project, and the rail authority hopes to secure another $8 billion from federal sources.

But when climate change is creating bigger California fires, longer droughts and weird storms (like the recent tornado watch in San Francisco), any move to limit greenhouse gases should be embraced on a bipartisan basis. Ultimately, the dangers posed by the climate are greater than the project’s expense.

High-speed rail features electric trains that zoom from Los Angeles to San Francisco via the San Joaquin Valley in two hours and 40 minutes. The current drive time is six to eight hours.

One can also take a jet from LAX to SFO in under 90 minutes, but airline travel is one of the most polluting ways to travel.

Once high-speed rail is fully built, its leaders estimate it will take the pollution equivalent of 400,000 cars off the road.

Better means of travel are needed in a climate-changed world. California can be a leader with its high-speed system. Besides, there are other good places for Musk and Ramaswamy to cut fat from the federal budget.

Find other waste, Elon Musk

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky would challenge Kiley’s assertion that California’s bullet train was the “single-greatest example of government waste” in the nation’s history.

The Republican senator annually puts out a report examining dubious federal spending. In 2023 (2024 is not out yet) Paul found the federal government spent money “to study Russian cats walking on a treadmill, Barbies used as proof of ID for receiving COVID Paycheck Protection Program funds, $6 million to promote tourism in Egypt, and $200 million to ‘struggling artists’ like Post Malone, Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne.”

In all, Paul found $900 billion in spending he considered wasteful. There are some good targets for Musk, Ramaswamy and Kiley et al to consider.

In his House floor speech, Kiley decried the fact that not one passenger has yet traveled on a bullet train. That is because the initial leg in the San Joaquin Valley is unfinished. But it is getting closer to operating. The rail authority projects the Merced to Bakersfield leg will become operational between 2030 and 2033. One good note: Almost all the environmental approvals are done.

Big public works projects take time. Construction of the nation’s interstate highway system began in 1956 and did not finish until 1992. Did Congress expect to leave major highways unfinished? Of course not. In much the same way, Congress and California’s leaders must stay the course with high-speed rail.

The project has generated 12,200 jobs, engaged more than 800 small businesses and provided $6.5 billion in benefits to low-income communities, the rail authority says.

If Kiley wants to author a bill, he should consider restarting tax incentives for electric vehicles that Trump wants to cut. Musk, for his part, could end his longstanding opposition to high-speed rail and throw some billions of his private investment dollars into the project. That would do wonders for its efficiency.

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