Administration Warns Highway Fund Could Be Out of Money by August
The Obama administration is warning that the Federal Highway Trust fund will run out of money in August if lawmakers don't give it an infusion of $5 billion to $7 billion, the Associated Press reported.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told lawmakers at a hearing Tuesday that the administration told senators that the fund, which pays for highway construction projects, will need another $8 billion to $10 billion to get through the year ending Sept. 30, 2010.
The trust fund relies primarily upon fuel tax revenue, AP said. But a decline in fuel consumption has greatly reduced the amount of money the federal government receives from the tax, which is 22.4 cents per gallon of diesel or 18.4 cents per gallon of gas.
Congress transferred $8.017 billion to the Highway Trust Fund from the Treasury’s general fund in September. It was the first time Congress had refilled the fund.
At the hearing, which was on President Obama’s nomination of Victor Mendez to head the Federal Highway Administration, Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) said that Congress must raise the fuel tax to keep the trust fund afloat.
Mendez called fixing the trust fund “one of my highest priorities,” AP reported.
The fund is separate from the $48 billion allocated for transportation projects in the economic stimulus legislation enacted earlier this year.
