Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa released a report Wednesday detailing over a dozen projects that are significantly over-budget or have faced lengthy delays.
Ernst assembled the 50-page report after Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy sent Vice President J.D. Vance a letter detailing 14 Department of Transportation projects facing cost overruns of at least $1 billion or which have fallen five or more years behind schedule. Ernst told the Daily Caller News Foundation that after the Trump administration yanked funding for California’s high-speed rail project, there were more projects to scrutinize.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to bail out gravy trains and bridges to nowhere because bureaucrats continue to get bamboozled,” Ernst told the DCNF. “I will not allow taxpayers to continue to be taken for a billion-dollar ride. It is time to bring these boondoggles to a squealing halt.”
Another win for taxpayers.
For years, I’ve been fighting to defund the California crazy train to nowhere and now the Trump admin is bringing it to a squealing halt.
Time to defund more boondoggles!https://t.co/67E9PtWdYy
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) July 21, 2025
The projects mentioned in Ernst’s report collectively have gone at least $162.9 billion over budget, with California’s high-speed rail accounting for $95 billion of the cost overruns alone, according to drafts seen by the DCNF.
Ernst requested Duffy list any projects that fit criteria (being either five years behind schedule or at least $1 billion over budget) in Section 11319 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which then-President Joe Biden signed into law in November 2021, in a letter sent April 1.
“This ‘report’ that took so long to finish is a one-page chart providing few details, leaving out key information, and even omitting some well-known boondoggles,” Ernst’s report says.
One project on the list, the Columbus Crossroads corridor improvements, is 19 years behind schedule according to the letter sent by Duffy, along with a budget that has more than doubled its original estimate of $801 million. The project, started in 2011, initially had a completion date of 2018, but now isn’t expected to be finished until 2037.
Another program on the list, the Honolulu Rail Transit Project, not only has a cost overrun of $4.8 billion since it started in 2012, but its projected completion slipped from 2020 to 2031 in the process. A light rail project in Maryland, the Purple Line for the Washington Metro, is $3.1 billion over budget and delayed by more than five years and is expected to not be finished before February 2028.
“If you’re receiving taxpayer dollars, you should expect to be held accountable by the American people. No more boondoggles! Thank you, Senator Ernst, for your leadership in Congress to ensure federal dollars are being used effectively and efficiently,” Duffy told the DCNF.
Ernst also noted other government programs that were running over budget in her report, including an electronic records system for the Department of Veterans Affairs that is nearly $34 billion over budget, but stated the cost overrun might not be the worst part of that project.
I have led the fight exposing Jerome Powell’s Taj Mahal on the National Mall.
We need answers over how a renovation at the Fed has ballooned 30% over budget and turned into a $2.5 billion boondoggle. https://t.co/SOgUgCV8ZG
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) July 24, 2025
“Flaws with the new system may have contributed to the deaths of several veterans and caused harm to others,” Ernst’s report states.
Ernst also highlighted overruns on defense projects, notably the program for new planes to serve as Air Force One and the Coast Guard’s effort to build new icebreakers, noting a $2 billion cost overrun for the latter in the report. Ernst also listed the $3.1 billion renovation of the Federal Reverse’s headquarters in her report.
Ernst has focused on 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, she detailed waste ranging from addressing unused space in buildings to uncommitted spending for COVID relief, with the proposed savings totaling over $2 trillion.
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