Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa asked Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to provide a list of “billion-dollar boondoggle” projects funded by the Department of Transportation that are either over budget or behind schedule on Tuesday.
Ernst, in a letter sent Tuesday, requested that Duffy list the projects that are more than $1 billion over budget or five years behind schedule, as required by a provision she authored within the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in November, 2021. Ernst claimed that the Biden administration “refused” to enforce her provision, which she dubbed the “Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act,” requiring a report of projects meeting that criteria to be compiled.
“Unfortunately, we do not even know how many other bloated boondoggles are out there, because the Biden administration refused to enforce my Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act, “Ernst told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We need answers about just how many other gravy trains are taking taxpayers for a ride and slam the brakes on runaway spending.”
You can’t make it up!
Billions of dollars have been wasted on the California crazy train and now local lawmakers admit that they “have no plan,” but need BILLIONS more to get it back on track!
This is exactly why I have been calling to defund this gravy train to nowhere for… https://t.co/BzOaSA8G56
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) March 28, 2025
Ernst’s letter pointed to California’s high-speed rail project, which is reportedly $100 billion over budget and over a decade behind schedule and in need of another $7 billion infusion of funding, as one example of a project wasting taxpayer funds.
“More money, more problems is the motto for the California crazy train to nowhere,” Ernst told the DCNF.
“Despite repeated requests from my office over the past several years, not a single report has been issued to date,” Ernst wrote to Duffy. “Since I am keeping my own running list, I can assure you there are plenty of boondoggles being funded by DOT before you became secretary deserving of your attention and a place in this report.”
Ernst released a list of five rail projects in February including California’s high-speed rail program that was supposed to link Los Angeles and San Francisco, two other rail projects in the San Francisco area and light-rail projects in Maryland and Minnesota, which combined, totaled over $110 billion in cost overruns.
Duffy announced a probe into California’s high-speed rail line between San Francisco and Los Angeles in February to determine if $4 billion in federal funding should remain committed to the project, which has failed to meet a 2020 goal of opening its first segment between Merced and Bakersfield.
Ernst has focused on eliminating government waste since her election to the United States Senate in 2014, with a recent focus on the effects of telework and remote work on federal agencies.
In a seven-page letter to Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in November, Ernst detailed waste ranging from addressing unused space in buildings to uncommitted spending for COVID-19 relief, with the proposed cuts totaling over $2 trillion.
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