Federal Highway Trust Fund

President Donald Trump signed an appropriations bill Thursday that extends federal surface transportation programs for one year, including $13.6 billion to keep the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) from running out of cash. The highway bill extension was part of a larger package that funds the entire...

The Federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF), already gasping for air due to declining revenue, is now getting hit with a case of COVID-19 as fewer vehicles on the road as a result of the pandemic means less money from fuel taxes. The HTF, which uses revenue collected from gasoline, diesel fuel and the...

Members of the House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee agreed on Thursday, February 7 on the need for a bold and long-overdue plan to fix the nation's infrastructure, but the big unanswered question continues to be how to fund it. Raise the gas tax? Install a vehicle-mile...

The U.S. federal deficit is projected to average its highest levels over the next decade at $1.2 trillion per year, and the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) is one of the deficit-spending programs that will be most in need of a major funding overhaul or risk going bankrupt. According to the latest...

New truck and trailer purchases currently include a 12 percent federal excise tax, adding tens of thousands of dollars to the purchase price. A new coalition is looking to lobby for the repeal of the tax. Efforts to repeal the federal excise tax (FET) on heavy trucks and trailers have resulted in...

Washington Governor Jay Inslee proposes a statewide cap and trade program. The Democrat released details of his carbon pollution market program that would give the state's Department of Ecology authority to set annual goals aimed at reducing emissions to half of 1990 levels. Inslee would...