CA Dems Use Budget to Reduce Oversight of High-Speed Rail

On Monday, Democrats in Sacramento, doing their best to aid Governor Jerry Brown’s troubled high-speed rail project, attempted to grease the way for the project’s success by relaxing oversight and reporting requirements.

The Democrats used a trailer bill dealing with the state budget to implement measures that would require spending reports from managers of the rail project to be sent to the legislature every two years instead of twice per year. They also approved allowing membership in the project’s peer review group to be extended to those with experience with large infrastructure projects rather than just high-speed rail.

Republicans charged that Democrats are letting the project continue minus the necessary supervision. Sen. Jeff Stone (R-Temecula) said that projects as large as the high-speed rail project “need more oversight, and not less,” according to the Sacramento Bee.

Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) protested: “There’s no lack of transparency. We’re making this change just for efficiency.”