To build and repair highways, roads, bridges
Stalled in the fast lane
The Highway Trust Fund is a mass transportation fund primarily responsible for the maintenance of our nation's roads and highways, as well as some aspects of energy infrastructure. The Fund generates its revenue from an $0.183 per-gallon federal tax on gasoline as well as the $0.244 per-gallon tax on diesel fuel and other excise taxes.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal in May, the Highway Trust Fund provides about one-quarter of the $216 billion spent annually on highway and mass-transit construction projects and improvements. In other words, about $1 billion a week moves from this fund to contractors hired by the state and local governments to build and repair highways, roads, bridges, and other forms of infrastructure.
There's just one problem: The Fund is headed toward insolvency.
Despite a Congressional vote last month which saw both political parties come together to work out funding for the Highway Trust Fund through May 2015, its future beyond that point remains cloudy at best. Per the Department of Transportation, the Highway Trust Fund began the year with a cash balance of $10.4 billion following a General Fund transfer, but has seen that balance fall to just $6.5 billion as of the end of June. The Department of Transportation predicted that had nothing been done by Congress, the Fund would have run out of cash by September.