Lawmakers on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Tuesday debated the possibility of increasing the 18.4 cents per gallon federal gas tax for the first time since 1993.
The discussion was part of a hearing held by the highways subcommittee during which lawmakers discussed the future of the Highway Trust Fund.
According to testimony from the Congressional Budget Office, the trust fund will hit insolvency in 2015 if Congress fails to find new sources of revenue. That year, there will be about $50 billion in outlays from the trust fund, but only $40 billion in receipts.
“That means at some point in 2015, the Department of Transportation will be unable to reimburse states for all of the federal highway and mass transit expenses they have already incurred,” Kim Cawley of the Congressional Budget Office told lawmakers.
The last surface transportation bill, MAP-21, spent $54 billion per year and is set to expire Sept. 30, 2014. The gas tax currently brings in $35 billion annually.
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