Fleet Management

The Senate passed a short-term patch to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent until December 19, in effect setting up a vote this year on a long-term highway program. The $8 billion bill now goes to the House, which must act quickly if Congress is to keep the fund from going over the precipice.

Tags: Highway Funding, U.S. Senate, Highway Trust Fund, U.S. House

UPDATED---Congress appears to be coming together to pass a plan to rescue the Highway Trust Fund, used to pay for federal road and bridge projects, before it runs out of money in August, putting hundreds of road construction jobs at risk and shuttering thousands of highway projects.

Tags: Legislation, Congress, Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund

In an effort to prevent a shutdown of the federal transportation program, the Senate Finance Committee has drafted a proposal to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through the end of the year. The original version of the proposal included an increase in the heavy vehicle use tax, but that provision was dropped in deference to Republican concern about the proportion of revenue raisers to spending cuts in the proposal.

Tags: Legislation, Highway Funding, U.S. Senate, Highway Trust Fund, Heavy Vehicle Use Tax

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is proposing a three-month patch to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through the end of the year. The patch would be paid for with general funds, balanced by adjustments including raising the heavy vehicle use tax.

Tags: ATA, Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund, Legislation, Congress

Amid warnings about a looming cutoff in highway funding, two Senators are proposing an old-fashioned fix: raise the federal fuel tax. Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., proposed raising gasoline and diesel taxes six cents a year for two years, then indexing them to the Consumer Price Index.

Tags: Legislation, Fuel Tax, Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund, U.S. Senate, Congress

HR 4848, “The Repeal and Rebuild Act,” is a long-term solution that would create American jobs, fix the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, and finally break the transportation funding impasse that has plagued Congress for years, according to the senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Tags: Legislation, Congress, Highway Funding, U.S. House of Representatives, Highway Trust Fund

Work on the highway bill continues next week with a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on safety policy. The Subcommittee on Surface Transportation will convene Tuesday, June 3 to take testimony on “The Safety and Effectiveness of our Transportation Systems.” Witnesses have not yet been named.

Tags: FMCSA, Safety, Senate, Highway Bill, Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund, Congress, Legislation

Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood opened the second day of the ALK Technology Summit in Princeton, N.J., on Wednesday by telling attendees that while the U.S. is "the greatest country in the world [our] transportation and infrastructure is a big mess."

Tags: Infrastructure, Ray LaHood, ALK Transportation Technology Summit, Highway Funding, President Obama, Congress, Highway Trust Fund

American Trucking Associations has reconsidered its policy on highway funding and added seven alternatives to its bedrock commitment to the federal fuel tax.

Tags: ATA, Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund, American Trucking Associations, Fuel Tax, Diesel Tax

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously approved its bill to reauthorize the federal highway program. The bill proposes a 6-year program that builds on reforms already in place and calls for continuation of current funding levels plus an adjustment for inflation.

Tags: Highway Funding, U.S. Senate, Highway Trust Fund, Highways, Congress, Legislation

As Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., sees it, the idea of a fuel tax increase to restore the Highway Trust Fund is not out of the question. Carper’s message to his colleagues in the Senate is to look at a wide range of ideas to save the Fund, but among them consider restoring the purchasing power of the fuel tax.

Tags: ATA, Fuel Tax, Highway Funding, Congress, Diesel Tax, American Trucking Associations, Highway Trust Fund, U.S. Senate

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s highway bill picks up on the reforms initiated by its predecessor, MAP-21, and proposes modest funding for a six-year program. The committee calls for current funding levels plus inflation, compared to the $302 billion, four-year program proposed by the Obama administration.

Tags: U.S. Senate, Highway Trust Fund, Highway Bill, Congress, Highway Funding

The to-and-fro over highway funding continued in the Senate Wednesday with Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx politely deflecting Sen. John Thune’s attempt to get the Obama administration to say it would accept a fuel tax increase.

Tags: Highway Funding, U.S. Senate, Highways, FMCSA, Hours of Service, Regulations, Highway Trust Fund, U.S. DOT, Anthony Foxx

The Obama administration put down its marker for the next highway program with the GROW America Act, a $302 billion, four-year bill funded by a one-time infusion from a change in the corporate tax code. The House and Senate are working on their versions with no word yet on how they will pay for them, although the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing May 6: New Routes for Funding and Financing Highways and Transit.

Tags: Congress, Highway Funding, Highways, President Obama, Highway Bill, Highway Trust Fund

UPDATED -- U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on Tuesday unveiled a long-term transportation bill he is sending to Congress for consideration as the House and Senate face looming deadlines to avoid the Highway Trust Fund running out of money this summer, but at least one part of it will likely draw controversy.

Tags: Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund, Anthony Foxx, President Obama, Congress, Tolls

UPDATED -- The American Trucking Associations is calling on the Obama administration to focus on what it says are “the real challenges, and real solutions, to the nation’s infrastructure funding woes.”

Tags: ATA, American Trucking Associations, Infrastructure, Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund, Infrastructure Funding, President Obama

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., is a longtime supporter of raising federal fuel taxes to pay for highways and will float that idea with his colleagues as they draft the next highway bill. Carper sees a gradual fuel tax increase as a fiscally responsible approach to highway funding but is open to other ideas as well, according to his office.

Tags: Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund, U.S. Senate, Congress, Fuel Tax, Gasoline Tax, Diesel Tax

Anthony Foxx is on the road this week emphasizing the importance of infrastructure funding, with the Obama Administration concerned about the ability to pass a new long-term highway funding authorization before two key deadlines.

Tags: Congress, Infrastructure, Highway Funding, Highways, Anthony Foxx, U.S. Congress, President Obama, Highway Trust Fund, Alabama

The Highway Trust Fund is likely to run into the red by September, according to the latest update from the Department of Transportation. In its most recent monthly status report, DOT shows the fund’s cash balance dipping below zero in late August or the first week of September.

Tags: Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund, MAP-21

A bipartisan group of Senators has agreed on the outline of bill to reauthorize the federal highway program. The terms of the deal cover policy principles such as a long-term bill and maintaining existing programs but they do not cover the key question of how to pay for the program.

Tags: Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund, Highways, Congress

The hearing rooms change but the theme remains the same: Congress must find a way to restore the Highway Trust Fund so it can support a robust, long-term federal highway program. That was the key take-away from state and local officials testifying before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday.

Tags: Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund, Infrastructure, Congress

With the federal Highway Trust Fund projected to be unable to support any new highway, bridge and public transportation improvements in fiscal year 2015, a national coalition of associations and labor unions announced that it is launching a campaign to help educate Congress about the connection between local jobs and federal highway and transit investment.

Tags: Congress, Highway Trust Fund, Hardhats for Highways

Ideas for infusions into the Highway Trust Fund got conflicting receptions before congressional tax committees this week, as Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden said he's looking for solutions while Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp expressed concerns about the Obama administration's proposal.

Tags: Highway Trust Fund, FET, Taxes, Infrastructure Funding, Highways, Congress, Legislation