Reports Examine Future Shortfalls,Funding Sources for Highway Trust Fund

摘要

In recent years, inflows to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF)-the main source of federal funding for highways and mass transit-have failed to keep pace with outlays, requiring transfers from the government's general fund. Although such transfers violate the original understanding that the HTF would operate as a self-sustaining program, Congress and the White House have been unable to agree on a way to increase HTF revenues without raising the fuel taxes that generate the revenues in the first place. Unless lawmakers opt to continue the practice of using the general fund to bail out the HTF, they will be forced to make changes relatively soon.