WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congress completed a task last week that it had not done in the previous decade: passed a long-term highway authorization bill. On Thursday, both the House and Senate passed H.R. 22, Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act). The FAST Act extends highway authorization for five years with total funding at $305 billion across the next five years. The Senate passed the measure by a vote of 83-16; the House passed the same bill earlier in the day by a vote of 359-65. Each chamber had previously passed its own versions of a highway authorization bill earlier this year and reached a compromise last week to resolve various differences between the two versions. President Obama signed the legislation into law on Friday.
In addition to authorizing general highway spending for five years, the bill aims to improve the nation’s infrastructure by providing fiscal certainty to state and local governments, streamlining the environmental review and permitting processes, and improving truck and bus safety.
Of particular importance to NACS and its members, the bill contains several provisions related to interstate tolling. Under an existing tolling pilot program, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia are conditionally approved for a number of years to implement toll roads on federal interstates. While the three states have not yet moved forward with the tolling expansion, the legislation passed last week would add new obligations to any state participating in the program.
Specifically, the legislation would require each state to have the authority for the tolling project to proceed and would implement a “use it or lose it” provision where each state would have a three-year time period for tolling projects that are conditionally approved to either move forward or lose its pilot program slot; those currently in the pilot program would have one year to move forward or to receive an extension from the Secretary of Transportation. Importantly, the bill does not allow toll revenues to be diverted to fund other transportation projections—something the original Senate version would have allowed—nor does it allow for an expansion in the number of states allowed to participate in the pilot program.
Other miscellaneous provisions in the bill include a reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank and a section allowing the federal government to construct and operate battery recharging stations at government parking areas for use by federal employees of their private vehicles. This is a substantially pared back version of legislation introduced in previous Congresses which would have allowed the construction and operation of “alternative fuels infrastructure” by government agencies for audiences wider than simply government employees.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report on the legislation detailing the various mechanisms used to finance the five-year bill. In addition to an extension of the current fuel taxes which have traditionally funded the Highway Trust Fund, Congress provided revenue from a variety of sources, including diverting $300 million from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Trust Fund; selling 66 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, accounting for roughly $6.2 billion; and revenue from Federal Reserve surplus accounts and bank dividend transfers.
“NACS is very pleased that Congress was able to pass a long term highway bill. Funding our transportation system is vital to our economy and important to our industry,” said Paige Anderson, director of government affairs for NACS. “Though we would have preferred that Congress eliminate the pilot program on tolling federal highways completely and not raid the LUST trust fund, we support the reforms that were included on tolling of federal highways in the final bill.”
While the five-year bill is fully funded, CBO projects an additional shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund beginning in the near future due to Congress’ failure to enact a long-term funding solution for the trust fund. “Beginning in fiscal year 2021, CBO projects that revenues credited to the highway and transit accounts of the Highway Trust Fund would be insufficient to meet the fund's obligations,” CBO wrote in its report. While several members advocated for raising the gasoline tax during the course of debate on the transportation bill, the legislation maintains the fuel tax rates at current levels. The federal gasoline tax was last increased in 1993.