WASHINGTON – U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he is confident the administration will defeat any lawsuit challenging the department’s decision to rescind $4 billion in U.S. government funding for California’s high-speed rail project.

“I wish it could have gone to California. We were supportive of the California project, but when we’re 16 years in and $15 billion without a track laid; and it’s going to cost over $130 billion and no funding pathway for it, no timeline to complete it. We have to pull the plug,” Duffy told reporters outside the department’s headquarters.

The California High-Speed Rail System is a planned two-phase 800-mile (1,287 km) system with speeds of up to 220 miles per hour that aims to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles and Anaheim, and in the second phase, extend north to Sacramento and south to San Diego.

California officials called the action illegal. This is the latest in a series of clashes between President Donald Trump’s Republican administration and California, which have included disputes over transgender athletes, electric vehicle rules, the use of National Guard troops during protests in Los Angeles and even egg prices.

The Federal Railroad Administration issued a 315-page report last month citing missed deadlines, budget shortfalls and questionable ridership projections.

The entire San Francisco-to-Los Angeles project was initially supposed to be completed by 2020 for $33 billion, but has now jumped from $89 billion to $128 billion.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority said it “is fast approaching the track-laying phase, with 171 miles under active construction and design, 15,500 jobs created, and more than 50 major structures completed.”

Voters approved $10 billion for the project in 2008. The Transportation Department under former President Joe Biden awarded the project about $4 billion.

In 2021, Biden restored a $929 million grant for California’s high-speed rail that Trump had revoked in 2019.

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(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Aurora Ellis)