The Senate Highway Bill (S. 1813) reauthorizes and fully funds the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) for two years, investing $9.2 billion over that timespan in job-creating infrastructure projects to ensure safety and mobility, help businesses operate, reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality. The Senate bill also makes a long-term down payment for future highway improvements, investing nearly $14 billion in our highway infrastructure over the next decade.
Not only does the Senate bill not add a single cent to the deficit, it actually reduces the deficit by $10 billion.
The Senate bill reauthorizes the Highway Trust Fund and guarantees it will remain fully-funded through 2013.
* The Senate reached broad, bipartisan agreement on funding sources that would fully cover the highway bill’s two-year life. The Senate passed the bill 74-22.
The Senate bill invests more than $9.2 billion into the Highway Trust Fund over the bill’s two-year span.
* A bipartisan proposal immediately transfers to the HTF $3 billion in surplus funds from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank trust fund (LUST fund), which relies on fuel taxes for funding.
* It also routes a third of the future LUST Fund fuel taxes into the HTF, contributing nearly another $700 million.
* The bill transfers fees on cars that don’t comply with fuel efficiency standards, as well as tariffs on foreign auto imports. Together, these provisions contribute nearly $5 billion to the HTF.
The Senate bill leaves the Highway Trust Fund with a surplus, or “cushion," at the end of the two-year reauthorization in 2013.
* The Department of Transportation requested the Senate bill leave a cushion in the Highway Trust Fund that would last beyond the two-year reauthorization.
* The Senate bill raises enough funding to leave a $3.6 billion cushion at the end of its two-year life.
* The House has failed to pass any Highway Bill besides a 90-day, short-term extension. Unless action is taken beyond short-term extensions, the Highway Trust Fund will be insolvent by early 2013.
The Senate bill also makes an additional long-term investment, raising its ten-year total to nearly $14 billion invested in our highway infrastructure.
* The additional investment comes from bipartisan funding provisions that last beyond the two-year HTF reauthorization.
The Senate bill does not add to the deficit or debt, and it replenishes every dime transferred from the government’s General Fund.
* The bill replenished the General Fund for the amounts moved into the Highway Trust Fund.
* The largest provision to replenish the General Fund stabilizes contributions into pension plans and raises nearly $9.5 billion over ten years. Other funding provisions crack down on tax cheats and increase penalties on unscrupulous Medicare providers.
* In total, these provisions replenish every penny transferred from the General Fund.
Source: Ranking Member’s News
