As electric vehicles appear more and more to be the future of transportation in America, the decades-old method of funding the nation’s roads and bridges with gasoline taxes will soon be a relic of its past.

Nearly a dozen stakeholders representing local governments and the freight and commuter sectors on Feb. 7 urged a House transportation panel to identify a sustainable source of funding for an infrastructure bill.

Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) tells Transport Topics' Eugene Mulero he thinks the House "will move pretty fast" once it gets an infrastructure proposal from the Trump administration. He also talks about the Highway Trust Fund and "changing the funding culture." More in our Jan. 17 LiveOnWeb program, "2018 Government Outlook" at bit.ly/TT-LOW0117.

WASHINGTON — With President Donald Trump declaring infrastructure funding a legislative priority for 2018, the White House and congressional leaders are focused on a long-term fix for the Highway Trust Fund, a White House official said Jan. 8.

The endorsement by more than 250 members of the House to ensure colleagues on the tax policy panel adopt a sustainable funding source for a federal highway account drew praise from one of the country’s largest construction groups.

In less than two weeks, three dozen House lawmakers have signed a letter urging tax policy authorizers to guarantee the sustainability of the Highway Trust Fund, bringing the total of signatories to 212, according to the office of Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.).