Patrick Fallon/Reuters
The Department of Transportation has announced it will be canceling $929 million in grant funds for California's scrapped high-speed rail system project. In a statement, the department said it was also “actively exploring every legal option to seek the return from California of $2.5 billion in Federal funds (Federal Railroad Administration) previously granted for this now-defunct project.” In response, California Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNN the grant cancellations came 24 hours after the state sued the Trump administration over the president's national emergency declaration. “This is clear political retribution by President Trump, and we won't sit idly by. This is California's money, and we are going to fight for it,” he said. Newsom announced last week that he decided to significantly scale back the high-speed train project—which would have run between Los Angeles and San Francisco—because its construction would have been “too costly and would take too long.” But he vowed to continue environmental studies for connector routes, a requirement to keep the federal funds.