Federal Government Policy and Business

Congress Gears Up for Highway Funding Fight

Time: Lawmakers advanced proposals Thursday to save the country’s main highway fund, but differences in plans from the House and Senate are likely to spur a congressional showdown in the coming weeks.

The Highway Trust Fund is the main source of funding for road, bridge and mass transit projects, and the Obama Administration expects it to run out of money next month. The bill approved by a House committee Thursday would raise almost $11 billion to keep the fund solvent through May 2015. It would generate the money through an accounting gimmick known as “pension smoothing”—which changes pension contributions—by extending customs fees on importers and by taking $1 billion from a fund to fix underground storage tanks.

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