Under the new bill, the Highway Trust Fund would need more funding to get through the next five years.
Jeff Davis takes a closer look at the Congressional Budget Office’s updated forecast of the Highway Trust Fund cash flow and the added cost of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s highway bill, S. 2302, introduced by Senator John Barrasso.
"That new CBO baseline estimates that over the next five years, the Highway Trust Fund will need about $72 billion in new revenues or transfers in order to keep paying its bills, assuming current tax rates and the 2020 spending levels given annual inflation increases," says Davis.
Davis crunches the numbers to estimate how S. 2302 would affect the cash flow of the Highway Account. "Under this model, the Highway Account would need an additional $75 billion in additional revenues or transfers to fund the Barrasso bill."
Davis also reviews estimates for the Mass Transit Account, which would need another $27 billion under S. 2302. As a result, the Highway Trust Fund would need a total of $102 billion in additional revenues or transfers to get through the end of the 2025 fiscal year.
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