Dem lawmaker slams Florida governor on high-speed rail

Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) took her criticism of Florida Gov. Rick Scott's rejection of $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail money back home, telling Scott exactly what she thought of the decision.

The Orlando Sentinel reported Thursday that Brown confronted Scott at a Florida congressional delegation breakfast that featured a visit from the anti-rail Republican governor.

“I have not recovered from the loss of high-speed rail,” the paper reported that Brown, the ranking member on the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials, said.

“And I don’t think I will ever recover," it said she concluded.

Brown questioned Scott about another proposed railway — a commuter-rail project in Orlando called SunRail — Scott has said he is reviewing.

Rail supporters in Florida are worried that system could be next on Scott's deep-six list, the paper said Brown told Scott.

“Everyone is on eggshells," Brown said. "I’m not on eggshells. I want to know where we are going.”

Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns, also of Florida, reportedly stepped in to end the conversation between Brown and Scott. Scott said he was just "making sure the local communities understand that the way it works under the public transportation [rules] in our state."

"That it comes out of their district money and that they understand, on a state level, what our commitment is for seven years [and] at the end of that timeframe, the local communities are responsible,” he said, according to the newspaper.