Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.), who is expected to chair the House Highways Subcommittee of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee in the next Congress in 2011, is quoted by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that high-speed rail funds being returned to Washington by Ohio and Wisconsin most likely will be recycled to high-speed rail projects elsewhere.

Wisconsin's Republican Governor-elect Scott Walker, who said he will kill a high-speed rail project in his state, had said he wanted to use the $810 million in federal funds allocated for HSR to road projects instead. Walker said he intends to kill a proposed high-speed rail project intended to link Milwaukee with Madison.

A similar desire has been voiced by Ohio Republican Governor-elect John Kasich, who said he intends to kill a proposed high-speed rail project linking Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland, and return to Washington some $400 million in federal funds intended for that HSR project.

The Journal-Sentinel quoted Petri as saying he supports the shift in funds to highway projects, but that such a plan is unlikely to prevail in Congress - that "if Wisconsin decides not to use [the money] ... the normal course of events would be rebid and [it would go to] New York or California or one of the [other] states."

Separately, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Nov. 9 told Kasich in a Nov. 9 letter that "none of those funds may be used for anything other" than a high-speed rail project.

In defending federal seed money for high-speed rail projects, LaHood said the DOT already has "obtained commitments from more than 30 foreign-rail manufacturers to locate their bases of operations in the United States so we can restart idled manufacturing plants in Ohio and other states and put our skilled workers back on the job. I believe that Ohio manufacturers could benefit greatly as we build train sets and tracks."