Fleet Management

A bipartisan pair of House Representatives invoked the spirit of conservative champion Ronald Reagan to push for a fuel tax increase to revive the Highway Trust Fund. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Tom Petri, R-Wisc., called for passage of a bill to raise the tax and quoted from Reagan’s 1982 call to do the same.

Tags: Highway Trust Fund, U.S. Congress, Legislation, Taxes, Infrastructure Funding

The Republican sweep in the mid-term elections changes the players, but it is too soon to know how it will affect transportation policy.

Tags: Congress, Legislation, Highway Trust Fund, Highway Funding, President Obama, Highway Bill, Hours of Service

The Erie Canal, Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Interstate Highway System – all were built by men of vision, but today Congress lacks enough such people to rebuild America’s worn and aging infrastructure, said former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, calling for a 10-cent-a-gallon increase in the fuel tax.

Tags: Infrastructure, Interstate System, Ray LaHood, Taxes, Caterpillar, Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund

Undaunted by the conventional political view that Congress will accomplish nothing in the upcoming lame duck session, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., insists there is a chance to pass and fund a six-year highway program.

Tags: Congress, Fuel Tax, Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund, Highway Bill

A bid by conservatives in the House and Senate to effectively eliminate the federal highway program is drawing fire from American Trucking Associations and other transportation interests.

Tags: Congress, Fuel Tax, Highway Funding, Legislation, Highway Trust Fund, Gasoline Tax, American Trucking Associations, ATA

President Obama has signed the latest short-term extension of the federal highway program, starting a 10-month clock on yet another funding deadline.The $10.8 billion bill, passed by Congress at the last moment before the Highway Trust Fund dipped into the red, will keep the fund solvent until next May.

Tags: Congress, Highway Funding, Highway Trust Fund, Anthony Foxx

The Senate Thursday night approved a $10.8 billion House bill to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through next May. This ensures that highway funding will continue for the next 10 months.

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

Congress is inching ever closer to the edge of insolvency for the Highway Trust Fund. On Thursday afternoon the House rejected the Senate’s bill to patch the Fund into December and sent its original bill back to the upper chamber.

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

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