Sen. Thune: Congress Should Consider All Options to Fund Infrastructure
The next chairman of a key Senate transportation panel said federal lawmakers should “look at all the options” to keep infrastructure projects funded in the coming years.
“I don’t think we take anything off the table at this point. I think it’s important to recognize that we have a problem, an issue that we need a solution for,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the incoming chairman of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, said on Fox News on Jan. 4.
Thune added that he expects his panel and other committees with jurisdiction over highway funding to review a list of options to sustain the federal Highway Trust Fund before it starts to run short on money in May.
Several of Thune’s colleagues, such as Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), have proposed increasing taxes on gas and diesel fuel to boost the trust fund account. Thune said he does not “favor increasing any tax.” The trust fund relies on revenue from fuel taxes to distribute money to states, but improved fuel efficiency and a dramatic reliance on mass transit has meant less revenue for the fund.
Last summer, Congress cleared a nearly $11 billion bill that was signed into law to sustain the fund through May. That measure relied on “pension smoothing” to allow companies to minimize pension contributions.
Many transportation observers, however, expect lawmakers not to adopt a long-term fix for highway programs and again approve a short-term funding extension for the trust fund.
