House Bill Targets Highway Trust Fund Gap

Congressional policymakers are operating under a Sept. 30 highway policy authorization deadline. (Mark Tenally/Associated Press)

WASHINGTON — As House lawmakers prepare to consider comprehensive surface transportation legislation, policy experts are proposing options for the long-term future of the Highway Trust Fund.

The Eisenhower-era account, which helps states pay for certain infrastructure maintenance projects, will be central to Congress’ upcoming votes on a multiyear highway reauthorization measure.

Seeking to address the fund’s long-term solvency, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.), with help from the panel’s senior leadership, introduced highway policy legislation May 17. The latest surface transportation reauthorization measure proposes new annual registration fees for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, which the lawmakers described as the first new stream of infrastructure revenue for the trust fund in decades.

Congressional leaders have said the reauthorization bill is expected to emphasize transportation safety, freight mobility and supply chain connectivity. Policymakers are operating under a Sept. 30 highway policy authorization deadline.

Earlier this year, experts at the Eno Center for Transportation analyzed the trust fund’s finances and determined several options lawmakers might consider during the reauthorization process.

One option would increase revenue to match current spending levels. Eno estimated that an immediate 10-cent increase in federal motor fuel taxes, followed by gradual increases for the next decade, would help close the fund’s solvency gap.

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Another option would allow the account to remain insolvent, requiring Congress to continue transferring money from the general fund to support surface transportation programs — a practice that has been used for about two decades.

“Instead of continuing to slide toward that future, this paper seeks to lay out the options clearly to facilitate congressional consideration and decision-making,” Eno’s Jeff Davis and Rebecca Higgins wrote in “The Last Exit: Fixing the Highway Trust Fund While Solvency Is Still Solvable,” published in March. “Fortunately, while the decision is difficult, the choices are fairly straightforward.” Davis and Higgins presented their findings on Capitol Hill ahead of the highway bill’s formal introduction in the House.

The report was supported by a grant from Arnold Ventures and financial contributions from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

John Drake, the chamber’s vice president for transportation, infrastructure and supply chain policy, said the report comes as Congress faces mounting pressure to confront the fund’s structural shortfall. The chamber has long backed an increase in fuel taxes, a position that has gained little traction on Capitol Hill.

“For a very long time, we have been saying that the best way to do that is by increasing the gas tax. And the response we’ve gotten from policymakers on the Hill is, ‘no.’ So our perspective on this is this is a challenge that’s only getting worse the longer that policymakers don’t address it,” Drake told Transport Topics this month. “And if policymakers don’t want to increase the gas tax, then what we thought we could do to help this debate and help move this conversation forward is go to an organization like Eno that has a gold standard when it comes to the quality of their work and lay out the options for policymakers to consider.”

The Highway Trust Fund relies primarily on the federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon and the diesel tax of 24.4 cents per gallon, rates that have remained unchanged since 1993.

The Biden-era Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act ensured the fund could meet its obligations for about half a decade. Analysts widely expect Congress will need to take additional action beyond that point to maintain solvency. The trust fund primarily supports state highway maintenance projects and falls under the jurisdiction of the congressional tax-writing committees.