Bullet train takes a blow to the wallet
By The Bakersfield Californian
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress voted Thursday to kill funds for President Barack Obama's signature high-speed rail program, but the initiative may have some life in it still.
Republican lawmakers are claiming credit for killing the program. But billions of dollars still in the pipeline will ensure work will continue on some projects. And it's still possible money from another transportation grant program can be steered to high-speed trains.
Obama had requested $8 billion in fiscal 2012 for the program and $53 billion over six years.
But House-Senate bargainers this week agreed to a broad spending bill that eliminates any funding specifically for high-speed trains. The House approved that legislation Thursday 298-121 and the Senate followed suit 70-30, sending the measure to the White House.
Republicans have made it clear since taking control of the House last year that they intended to eliminate the program, which they say is too costly.
The bill marks "an end to the president's misguided high-speed rail program, but it is not the end of American high-speed rail," said Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's railroad subcommittee.
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