Highway Trust Fund Needs $8 Billion Bailout, DOT Says

The Highway Trust Fund needs an $8 billion transfusion from the U.S. Treasury’s general fund in order to avoid an imminent deficit, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said Friday during a conference call.

Without the move, which would require congressional approval, the fund could run dry “as soon as this month,” Peters said.

The highway trust fund had been projected to run into deficit by the end of the 2009 fiscal year, but Peters said reductions in vehicle miles traveled, and the subsequent dwindling of fuel-tax receipts, have sharply reduced federal income for infrastructure projects.

Earlier this year, DOT proposed tapping the highway trust fund’s transit account to shore up the highways account. The agency has resisted efforts by Congress to move money from the general fund into the highway trust fund.

The Bush administration in July called a congressional proposal to shift funds “both a gimmick and a dangerous precedent” in opposing a bill passed by the House this summer. On Friday, Peters called that bill DOT’s preferred vehicle for fixing the trust fund issue. However, Peters said the move “is not an ideal solution.”