Revenues from the 1998 voter approved Measure A half cent sales tax have exceeded expectations and the United States Congress and the California State Legislature have supplemented funding on an intermittent basis with appropriations during the life of the project. In December 2009, United States Senators John McCain and Tom Coburn criticized a $54 million appropriation for replacing two existing railroad trestle bridges over the river with higher ones. The money in the appropriation was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Replacement of these bridges were part of the project's original plan and the $85 million contract for the work was awarded to the Alaska native corporation Suulutaaq Inc. McCain and Coburn included the appropriation on a list of 100 “wasteful or silly" projects in their 2009 “Stimulus Checkup” report. The bridges are utilized by the privately owned Napa Valley Wine Train. An official spokesman for the City of Napa along with several elected officials accused McCain and Coburn of political grandstanding for including the funding in their report.