Title: Highway Trust Fund Basics: A Primer on Federal Surface Transportation Spending | The Heritage Foundation
Headings: Highway Trust Fund Basics: A Primer on Federal Surface Transportation Spending
Highway Trust Fund Basics: A Primer on Federal Surface Transportation Spending
Highway Trust Fund Overview
Condition of the Nation’s Roads and Bridges
State Action on Transportation Funding
Proposed Approaches to Address the Highway Trust Fund Budget
Conclusion
Authors

Content: Because the Highway Trust Fund by law is not allowed to run a negative balance and requires approximately a $5 billion minimum balance to meet obligations as they come due, Congress would need to transfer money from the general fund, cut spending, increase revenue, or some combination of these to keep the fund solvent. [ 9] If Congress fails to address the impending insolvency, the Department of Transportation estimates that it will have enough funds to continue normal operations through the end of July. [ 10] Then, the Department of Transportation would need to employ various cash-management measures, such as across-the-board cuts and payment delays, to keep disbursements flowing to the states. Such measures would increase uncertainty in already authorized projects. [ 11]
Long-Term Funding Issues. Highway Trust Fund spending has outpaced revenue by billions and will continue to do so if current policies are kept in place. Spending has expanded beyond the original purpose of building and maintaining the interstate highway system to funding a litany of non-highway projects that are not national priorities. Growth in spending has far outpaced fuel tax revenues, which have flattened (declined in real terms) primarily because technological advances, such as more fuel-efficient combustion engines and hybrid and electric vehicles, have decreased aggregate fuel consumption. Furthermore, Highway Trust Fund spending falls outside normal budgeting constraints that govern most federal expenditures. This has created the current unsustainable situation in which the Highway Trust Fund has required repeated bailouts from the general fund.