Highway funding

There is a general recognition on Capitol Hill that Congress is going to have to come up with dedicated money, as opposed to financing or general funds, for the next highway program in October 2014.

In the debate over how to increase highway funding, the call is often made to raise fuel taxes or develop other funding mechanisms to fix our crumbling highways and bridges, a problem brought tragically to the forefront by the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis in August 2007 that killed 13 people. Now, clouding the debate in Washington is the claim that our infrastructure really isn't crumbling after all.

Sen. Barbara Boxer gave a shout-out to American Trucking Associations last week, thanking the trade group for supporting higher diesel taxes dedicated to highway funding.

The highway law that took so much effort over the past five years is just six months old, but now it's time to start again. As the U.S. Department of Transportation still unpacks the two-year, $105 billion measure passed last summer, Congress and transportation interests are gathering to return, once more, unto the breach.