EXCLUSIVE: Joni Ernst Hints At List Of ‘Billion-Dollar Boondoggles’ She Wants To Bring ‘To A Squealing Halt’

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa exclusively told the Daily Caller News Foundation she is targeting more “billion-dollar boondoggles” after the Trump administration halted funding for California’s high-speed rail project.

The Trump administration announced Wednesday that future grants for the project, which is already more than $100 billion over budget and years behind schedule, will be cancelled in a release from the Transportation Department. Ernst praised the decision to pull the funding, hinting she is targeting other troubled programs for the chopping block after her successful effort to secure an end to federal funding for California’s $133 billion project. (RELATED: GOP Senator Introduces First Major DOGE Bill That Could Save Taxpayers Eye-Popping Amount)

“I am thrilled to have worked with the Trump administration to defund the California crazy train to nowhere,” Ernst told the DCNF. “Despite running $100 billion over budget, not a single track was even laid for this gravy train. Stay tuned because I am about to expose more billion-dollar boondoggles that need to be brought to a squealing halt later this month.”

We have brought the California crazy train to a squealing halt!

One boondoggle down, many more to go. https://t.co/leBzcEPlui

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) July 17, 2025

A source close to Ernst told the DCNF that the $2.5 billion renovation of the Federal Reverse’s headquarters is one project that could face the chopping block. The source also told the DCNF other projects from across the country which also have gone billions of dollars over budget and which have fallen years behind schedule will be on the list.

In a letter sent April 1, Ernst requested that Secretary of Transportation Sean 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. Ernst previously released a list of five rail projects in February as part of her “Squeal Awards,” including California’s high-speed rail program, two other rail projects in the San Francisco area and light-rail projects in Maryland and Minnesota that combined for over $110 billion in cost overruns.

The DCNF has covered the saga of California’s high-speed rail project for years as its budget ballooned from an initial estimate of $33 billion.

The high-speed rail project in California, which was to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2020, has not seen any track laid, but over $600 million has been spent on environmental reviews as of 2023. The Biden administration committed $3 billion in funds for the project, which employed as many as 13,000 union workers.

In June, the California High-Speed Rail Authority defended the program following a highly-critical report from the Department of Transportation, saying it would take 20 years for the first segment of the high-speed rail network to be completed.  The Trump administration began looking more closely into the project in February, with Duffy citing multiple “red flags” in a February release.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California decried the end of federal funding, declaring he would fight to keep federal funds flowing to the project.

“Trump wants to hand China the future and abandon the Central Valley. We won’t let him … California is putting all options on the table to fight this illegal action.” Newsom said in a statement released Wednesday.

Newsom hinted in 2019 that the project may not be feasible, instead suggesting a new proposal to connect Bakersfield and Merced with a 160-mile line.

“Let’s level about the high-speed rail,” Newsom said during his 2019 State of the State address. “Let’s be real, the current project as planned would cost too much and, respectfully, take too long. Right now, there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to L.A. I wish there were.”

Ernst has focused on government waste since her election to the United States Senate in 2014, with an emphasis on the effects of telework and remote work on federal agencies, which culminated in President Donald Trump ordering federal employees to return to the office in an executive order signed on Jan. 20. 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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