Federal officials will be investigating California's high-speed rail plans, with the goal of determining if a portion of the project merits $4 billion in taxpayer funds, the Department of Transportation announced on Thursday.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy directed the Federal Railroad Administration to launch a formal review of the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) — alerting the agency to this process in a letter from the federal department's chief counsel.

The Transportation Department noted that the segment under scrutiny — a stretch between Merced and Bakersfield in the Central Valley — was slated to be completed by 2020, at a........

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