Editorial: Saving the Highway Trust Fund

This Editorial appears in the Sept. 15 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

We are pleased and relieved that the Senate finally agreed to support the restitution of $8 billion to the faltering Highway Trust Fund from the U.S. Treasury to undo an old wrong.

And all it took was a dire warning from the Department of Transportation that the fund was about to run out of money, which would have effectively halted a lot of infrastructure-related construction projects around the country.

The dire state of road finances apparently shocked the Bush administration into action. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters abruptly changed course and called on Congress to approve the funds transfer. With her call came assurances that President Bush will sign the legislation when it reaches his desk.

The final roadblock was a trio of Republican senators who had prevented a vote on the transfer plan because they said the federal highway program wastes money (see story, p. 1; click here for Premium Content story).

The three senators had objected to the transfer, saying the trust fund’s problems were the result of unwise spending by their colleagues on so-called earmarks — that is, funding requests tacked onto bills to finance pet projects.

After they were convinced to withdraw their objections, the Senate voted Sept. 10 to support the restitution of more than $8 billion that was transferred from the Highway Trust Fund to the Treasury in 1998, at a time when the fund actually had a surplus.

The trust fund — which is the primary piggy bank for the nation’s highway-building programs — has been slowly running out of money. The steep falloff in driving by Americans this year, inspired by the astronomical cost of fuel, has sharply cut fund income, which is financed by the federal tax on retail gasoline and diesel sales.

While we applaud Congress for putting this bandage on the bleeding Highway Trust Fund, and President Bush for signing it when it reaches his desk, a permanent solution is clearly needed, and quickly.

As we’ve stated many times, we support an increase in the fuel taxes that provide the revenue for road work as long as we have assurances that the money will indeed be spent on needed projects, and not shifted elsewhere.

We again urge Congress and the White House to support our call for securing the Highway Trust Fund, and now.