House OKs Additional Highway Funding

The House approved a bill by a lopsided margin Wednesday that would restore $8 billion to the federal Highway Trust Fund to avert an expected revenue shortfall in the coming fiscal year.

The 387-37 vote would avoid a shortfall that could run as high as $14 billion, having “a disastrous impact on transportation projects across the country and cost up to 380,000 . . . jobs,” according to a statement from the house Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The bipartisan bill restores $8 billion in highway user-fee revenue that was taken from the trust fund in 1998, the committee said.

It ensures that the trust fund remains solvent through the current authorization period, which ends on Sept. 30.

The bill now moves to the Senate.