
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.
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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.
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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.
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In late April, Tom Sanderson, CEO of the third-party logistics company Transplace, participated in a roundtable on Capitol Hill about highway funding. As we inch closer to the deadline and the Highway Trust Fund is heading into the red, he offers his impressions of that event.
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Republican leaders in the House are proposing a stopgap plan that claims money from postal service reforms to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through next May.
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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.
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American Trucking Associations has reconsidered its policy on highway funding and added seven alternatives to its bedrock commitment to the federal fuel tax.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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