Congress Sends HTF Patch to President’s Desk
Hours before the August Congressional recess and the August 1st deadline, when the Department of Transportation was set to start cutting highway reimbursements to States, late Thursday night, the Senate cleared the House passed bill on a vote of 81-13. The bill is an $11 billion ten-month Highway Trust Fund patch, which provides funds through pension smoothing, customs fees, and a transfer from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust (LUST). The HTF will now be funded until May 2015, ultimately giving Congress a few more months to develop their multi-year transportation reauthorizations bill.
The passage of the bill comes after a week of pontificating by both Congressional chambers and the Senate amending the House bill to cut the funding down to $8 billion and sunset it in December. Essentially this would have required Congress to address this issue again during a lame-duck session. Additionally, the Senate passed version received a “score” from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which House Republicans were quick to point out that the Senate bill raises roughly $2 billion less than needed to shore up the HTF through December.
Source: Transportation Intermediaries Association
