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.
December 3, 2014
The Republican sweep in the mid-term elections changes the players, but it is too soon to know how it will affect transportation policy.
November 5, 2014
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.
October 2, 2014
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.
September 16, 2014
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.
August 12, 2014
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.
July 31, 2014
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.
July 31, 2014
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.
July 29, 2014
The Senate is poised to debate and vote on a patch to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent until a long-term program can be funded. The question for debate is, how long will the patch last?
July 23, 2014
Congressional passage of a short-term patch for the Highway Trust Fund will avert the immediate crisis but not be cause for celebration, said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. Foxx and other transportation leaders are calling on Congress to preserve long-term funding for surface infrastructure.
July 21, 2014
Congress is inching closer to passage of a stopgap measure to prevent the Highway Trust Fund from drying up this summer. The House this week passed a $10.6 billion bill and the Senate is going to choose between a similar measure or a long-term bill.
July 16, 2014
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.
June 26, 2014
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.
June 25, 2014
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.
June 18, 2014
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.
June 2, 2014
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