California High-Speed Rail Sues DOT Over $4 Billion in Cuts (2)

California’s High-Speed Rail Authority sued the US Department of Transportation to reinstate the more than $4 billion in federal grant cuts to the long-delayed rail program that would connect the Los Angeles area with San Francisco and other cities.

The cuts, spurred by President Donald Trump‘s long-time “personal animus” toward California and its rail program, are an “abuse of discretion” and threaten to “wreak significant economic damage on the Central Valley, the State, and the Nation,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of California.

The state and its rail authority previously sued the first Trump administration in 2019 over terminated funds—a suit that later settled, resulting in a reinstatement of funds, the complaint says.

The rail authority, which had collaborated with the Federal Railroad Administration—an agency within the DOT—for more than 15 years on the project, alleges the current administration has violated the Administrative Procedure Act, claiming that the DOT’s actions were illegal in part because they were “arbitrary” and “capricious.”

The clawback of federal grant funds is the latest example of the Trump administration’s targeting of California policies that are out of line with its priorities: Other examples include a Congressional Review Act resolution signed by Trump that eliminates California’s ban on the sale of gas-powered cars, scrapping three Clean Air Act waivers that allow the state to set its own vehicle emission standards; the administration also sued Los Angeles in late June, claiming its sanctuary city ordinance helped fuel riots during protests against the White House’s deportation crackdown.

In response to the rail authority’s suit, the DOT said Thursday, “16 years, $15 billion in taxpayer funds, and not a single high speed rail track laid,” according to its post on X. “Naturally, Gavin Newsom’s plan is to waste even MORE taxpayer dollars defending this boondoggle. Newsom had plenty of time—YEARS—to make this work and he failed.” The DOT also said in the post that the agency “pulled the plug” on the project after compiling a “detailed 300 page report that documented years of missed deadlines and cost overruns.”

The FRA’s decision to cut off funds “is contrary to its policies, procedures, and regulations, as well as its ordinary practices,” the complaint says. And its rationale for terminating the cooperative agreements that granted the federal funds “is also inconsistent with their prior actions, including but not limited to the fact that, prior to the change in presidential administrations, FRA had consistently determined that the Authority was in compliance” with those agreements, it says.

Trump and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy told falsehoods about the project in an effort to lay the groundwork for ending federal funding, the suit alleges, including Trump’s claim that the project was “hundreds of billions of dollars over budget.”

Weeks later, Duffy “insinuated, without evidence, that the project was riddled with fraud, waste or abuse,” the complaint says.

The rail project secured ongoing annual funding of at least $1 billion in a budget deal secured by Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers in June.

The rail authority is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as a reinstatement of grant funds.

The California Attorney General’s Office represents the rail authority.

The case is Cal. High-Speed Rail Auth. v. DOT, E.D. Cal., No. 2:25-at-00931, complaint 7/17/25.