The Highway Trust Fund was established on the books of the Treasury in fiscal year 1957, according to provisions of the Highway Revenue Act of 1956 (Act of Jun 29, 1956, chapter 462, section 209). It has been amended and extended by various highway surface transportation and other acts since 1959. Section 1110(d) of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy For Users (Public Law 109-59) extended the Highway Trust Fund to be available for making expenditures before Sep 30, 2009. Amounts equivalent to taxes on gasoline, diesel fuel, special motor fuels, certain tires, heavy trucks and trailers, and heavy vehicle use are designated by the Act to be appropriated and transferred from the general fund of the Treasury to the trust fund. Within the fund is a...
The latest victim of increasing gas prices and the rising tide of fuel-efficient vehicle purchases appears to be the federal Highway Trust Fund. Currently, the federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, of which 15.44 cents is paid into the HTF, which has long been the single largest source of national highway funding, totaling about $31 billion annually.
The Federal Highway Trust Fund, which provides one-third of the funding states use to build highways and bridges, faces bankruptcy next year unless the current Congress acts to shore it up, Sen. Patty Murray told a state labor convention Tuesday in Vancouver. Federal gas tax revenue has taken a deep hit as motorists have cut back on driving in the face of soaring gas prices. Highway trust fund receipts were down more than $2 billion through May compared with the same period a year ago, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Congress's unwillingness to approve a long-term plan to finance the federal Highway Trust Fund is causing problems for local planners. It gets tough to say what projects you're going to do in five- to-10 years if you don't know if the rate of funding is going to be the same," said Jim Wild, senior manager for planning and programming at East-West Gateway Council of Governments, the clearinghouse for federal funding of transportation projects in the metropolitan area.
Mr. President, the country doesn't need another stimulus like the last one. The 2009 Recovery Act road and bridge initiative set the movement toward really improving the nation's transportation infrastructure back big-time. Problem One is that it gave your administration and most members of Congress political cover to take a pass on tackling the multiyear reauthorization of the highway and transit program that was due Oct. 1, 2009. That's been kicked down the road for two years. Only now, because the Highway Trust Fund has been bled dry, the program faces a potential 35 percent year-on-year cut - or complete shutdown - at the end of September.
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