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Feinstein supports billions for high speed rail
Local political leaders rallied in Los Angeles today to demand that Senator Dianne Feinstein support more money for high speed rail. Initial reports suggest the Senator's already on board.
The House and Senate are trying to hammer out differences in a transportation spending bill. The House wants to spend $4 billion dollars on high speed rail. The Senate says $1.2 billion is enough for now.
Dianne Feinstein has one word for LA officials lobbying for the higher amount: "Good!"
The Democrat from California sits on the Senate appropriations committee working on a compromise with the House.
"Not only that," she says, she supports taking some TARP monies or some unspent stimulus monies and using them to "really be able to move some of these systems from the drawing boards into the building stage."
The main obstacles are all the other transportation projects jockeying for dollars. Eight-billion was set aside for high speed rail in the stimulus package earlier this year. The Transportation Department will announce which projects get a share of that money early next year.
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