FHWA May Slow Funding Flow to States

States may have to spread out federal money used to repair bridges and roads or go without for longer stretches of time unless Congress gives emergency support to the Highway Trust Fund, the Federal Highway Administrator told state highway officials.

“Unless we shore up the trust fund, we will have no other choice than to pay the states less frequently for road and bridge repairs,” Mendez said in a conference call with officials from 38 states and Washington. Payments now made on a daily basis could be issued weekly or biweekly, depending on the level of funding available, he said.

The Highway Trust Fund, which provides states with about $40 billion a year for transportation infrastructure projects, is expected to go broke by the end of August, unless Congress shifts money from the general treasury to the trust fund.

That would make it harder for states to plan infrastructure projects and keep them rolling.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., introduced a bill July 28 to transfer $5 billion from the general fund to the Highway Trust Fund.

A trust fund shortfall wouldn’t shut down the Federal-Aid Highway Program, Mendez said, or prevent states from using federal dollars for highway projects. But it would affect how quickly FHWA issues money to the states.

The Highway Trust Fund is a political football in the debate over surface transportation reform. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committtee Chairman James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., who wants to pass a major six-year transportation bill this year, has suggested shifting $3 billion to the trust fund and completing a $500 billion bill by the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30.

The White House and a number of senators, including Energy and Publics Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., prefer to give as much as $20 billion trust fund and wait 18 months to take up a multiyear transportation authoriziation.

Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com