CBO Predicts Trouble for Highway Trust Fund

This week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its annual Economic and Budget Outlook.  CBO included an update to its biannual projections of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) cash flow in the report.  The report confirms previous speculation that the HTF will run out of cash on a day-to-day basis before the expiration of MAP-21 on Sept. 30, 2014.  CBO estimates that only the Transit Account of the HTF will be able to meet all obligations during fiscal year 2014. The pending shortfall will mean that the Department of Transportation will need a cash infusion of about $4 billion prior to Sept. 30 in order to meet cash flow requirements.  Looking beyond September, if Congress wants to write a six-year surface transportation bill at current funding levels plus annual increases for inflation, they will need to provide over $100 billion in revenue for the HTF, as stated in the CBO report.  A four-year bill would require $67 billion in new revenue, and a two-year bill would require $35 billion.  Even a simple one-year extension of MAP-21 would require an additional $19 billion. None of these scenarios are particularly optimal.  In the short term, Congress will need to provide money for the HTF just to get through the fiscal year, while they continue to look for revenue to fund a multi-year reauthorization of MAP-21. This issue remains a top priority for AGC.  We urge all of our members to visit the Legislative Action Center and contact their members of Congress to encourage them to make solving the trust fund revenue shortfall a top priority for Congress. For more information, please contact Sean O’Neill at (202) 547-8892 or oneills@agc.org.