A bill that aims to keep some California high-speed rail records confidential passed the Assembly on Monday afternoon, adding some fuel to the fire for some lawmakers who are already critical of the $126.2 billion project.

Assembly Bill 1608 authorizes the high-speed rail’s inspector general to keep some reports out of the public eye. The bill would also allow the inspector general to keep parts of certain reports secret if the report reveals weaknesses that put the high-speed rail project at risk.

The bill passed 45 to 18 and now heads to the Senate.

“When the office [of the high-speed rail inspector general] was created, the Legislature did not include provisions requiring the office to make its reports public or protections to ensure the inspector general could keep confidential, for a period of time, information that could harm the state,” Assemblymember Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City and author of the bill, testified on the Assembly floor. “Concerns were initially raised that this bill would keep information confidential. In fact, this bill does the exact opposite.”

The bill would make the high-speed rail inspector general’s reports public, which current law does not require, Wilson said on the Assembly floor. The bill also doesn’t protect the inspector general beyond what other state agencies have, including the state auditor and other inspector general offices.

However, opponents said during Monday’s Assembly floor session that the bill is an anti-transparency bill masquerading as legislation designed to increase transparency.

“This project is the most expensive infrastructure project happening in the entire world,” Assemblymember David Tangipa, R-Fresno, said during debate on the Assembly floor. “I think the public deserves maximum transparency. This bill would allow secrets as we’re trying to secure funding.”

However, some lawmakers spoke out in support of AB 1608, saying the legislation could attract more qualified applicants for open roles in the inspector general’s office and make reports from the inspector general's office public.

"You know there are certain infrastructure projects that you know the public is going to engage in, and if certain information is made public, it can actually put the public in danger," Assemblymember Corey Jackson, D-Moreno Valley, said in support of the bill. "The true intent of this bill is to do something that, right now, doesn't even exist, and that is the inspector general doesn't have to make the reports public. This bill says that yes, we believe these reports should be public."

Exceptions to the public records requirement include security protocols, the way things are built, what the project's weaknesses are and if there are ways to detect fraud, Jackson pointed out.

The High-Speed Rail Authority missed Friday's deadline to submit the agency’s final 2026 business plan. That report has to include information about funding gaps in the Merced-to-Bakersfield segment of the project, and how the agency plans to acquire the money to pay for that section. Department officials said on Friday that they needed more time to finish the report, and now expect a June publication date for that report. A draft business plan was published by the agency in February.

“Now we have this bill that would give the office of the inspector general the authority and discretion to keep any audit confidential if they feel it would pose a risk to the project,” Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach, said in opposition to the bill. “If the state is spending billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars on a project that is significantly behind schedule, I think the taxpayers are entitled to know how their money is being spent. Instead, this legislation seeks to hide that information, to save face and ensure that the project continues uninterrupted.”