GOP Wants to Block Federal Loan for LA to Las Vegas Rail
No trust for ridership figures
Two leading Republicans have urged the Obama administration to reject a $5.5 billion loan to build a high-speed rail between Las Vegas and Southern California, saying the deal is a bad gamble.
"The risks to the taxpayers from financing this project are untenable," Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama wrote to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in a March 6 letter.
Ryan is chairman of the House Budget Committee, and Sessions is the ranking GOP member on the Senate Budget Committee. Their argument was based in part on a 70-page report, released in August by the libertarian Reason Foundation, critical of the project being advanced by XpressWest.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Ha! Obama give up on a choo-choo? Not on your life!