The Central Valley is set to benefit from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill being debated by Congress. While specifics are still being worked out, local leaders relish receiving tens of millions of dollars for road and highway projects. Leading the request list is $20 million to expand a dangerous stretch...
White House, GOP Infrastructure Talks Reaching Key Stage
WASHINGTON — Negotiations between the White House and Republican senators over President Joe Biden's $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan are reaching a crucial stage before more talks Friday after the latest offer from GOP lawmakers left some dismay in the administration that there wasn't more movement from their initial $568 billion...
California to Vegas Rail Service Gets New Look with Biden Infrastructure Plan
LAS VEGAS — Proposed federal infrastructure funding for rail projects has transportation planners taking another look at a Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas passenger route that Amtrak stopped in 1997 and at a high-speed rail line along the congested Interstate 15 corridor. Discussed in Years Past but Lacked Funding President Joe Biden’s...
Biden’s Big Infrastructure Plan Hits McConnell, GOP Blockade
WASHINGTON — Republicans in Congress are making the politically brazen bet that it’s more advantageous to oppose President Joe Biden’s ambitious rebuild America agenda than to lend support for the costly $2.3 trillion undertaking for roads, bridges and other infrastructure investments. Much the way Republicans provided no votes for the...
Recognize the Progress of High-Speed Rail Project and Drop the Term ‘Boondoggle’
By Jim Beal and Scott Wiener, Special to CalMatters California’s High-Speed Rail project is under fire again, but history shows us that major infrastructure projects are almost always controversial. Before it was built, the Golden Gate Bridge was derided as financially unsound, legally dubious and an aesthetic blight. BART was...
McConnell: House $1.5T Infrastructure Bill ‘Isn’t Going Anywhere’
Before the offices of Reps. Jim Costa and TJ Cox could issue news releases trumpeting House passage of a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared the bill dead on arrival Wednesday. “This so-called infrastructure bill would siphon billions in funding from actual infrastructure to funnel into...
Opinion: Next Stimulus Should Focus on Energy, Infrastructure
As a lifelong free-market conservative, I know it pained many of my fellow Republicans to vote for the $2.3 trillion emergency relief package signed into law last month. The thought that the economy may need an additional $1 trillion or more in federal spending before the COVID-19 pandemic is over to avoid...
American Ingenuity Will Beat COVID-19. Here’s How We’ll Get Back to Work.
The COVID-19 pandemic is putting all of us to the test emotionally and financially. We are praying for loved ones fighting the virus and grieving for those close to our hearts who are no longer with us. And we are doing what we can to support the health workers and...
California Set to Pay $1.65 Billion for Work on High-Speed Rail
SACRAMENTO — California officials on Tuesday moved toward awarding a $1.65 billion contract to design and construct the tracks and system in the central San Joaquin Valley for the first segment of its beleaguered high-speed rail project. The action taken by the California High-Speed Rail Authority's board of directors was...
Gov. Newsom Is Shrinking Jerry Brown’s Pet Projects
When Jerry Brown began his first governorship in 1975, he quickly set himself apart from his father, former Gov. Pat Brown. The elder Brown’s legacy had been an immense expansion of the state’s public-works infrastructure—new colleges and universities, a web of freeways and, most of all, a massive project to...