Senate Finance Committee

After determining the size and scope of President Biden's infrastructure package, the next biggest challenge is determining how to pay for it. The partisan divide is steep, but Roll Call exposes division within the Democrats' ranks.

May 25, 2021 - Roll Call

A $287 billion, five-year transportation reauthorization made its way out of its first Senate committee this week.

August 1, 2019 - The Washington Post

It's not funding Trump's much-talked-about infrastructure package, but the 2020 termination date of the FAST Act has state transportation officials urging Congress to hike fuel taxes to sustain the Highway Trust Fund.

July 24, 2017 - AASHTO Journal

When Congress returns from the July 4 recess, they will have less than four weeks to pass and fund a transportation bill—be it for six years, as desired by transportation advocates, or less, as Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch prefers.

June 30, 2015 - The Hill

The Senate's DRIVE Act is shaping up to be the first six-year transportation reauthorization bill since 2009. Notwithstanding the acronym, it's not all that bad, writes Tanya Snyder of Streetsblog USA. Finding funding for it is another story.

June 25, 2015 - National Journal

A few days before President Obama announced his 14 percent offshore corporate profits tax, Sens. Rand Paul and Barbara Boxer teamed-up to announce they would be offering a repatriation tax, somewhat similar to Obama's tax. Both fund infrastructure.

February 3, 2015 - The Bond Buyer

After the House rejected the Senate's amendments to their Highway Trust Fund extension bill, the Senate passed the bill 81-13 on July 31. Payments to states will continue unchanged through May 2015 when the next hurdle awaits

August 1, 2014 - The Hill

Three days before Congress goes on recess and with the Highway Trust Fund approaching insolvency, the Senate passed a transportation bill notably different than the House version passed July 15, setting up a showdown between the two branches.

July 30, 2014 - POLITICO Pro.

Patch bills advanced in the Senate and the House on Thursday that would keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through May 2015—good news for state DOTs that will see reduced federal reimbursements on August 1 unless a funding bill is passed soon.

July 12, 2014 - Politico Morning Transportation

After it's first hearing, the PATH Act is not looking very promising to keep federal transportation reimbursements flowing to state DOTs late next month when the Highway Trust Fund is expected to approach insolvency. The one user fee was dropped.

June 27, 2014 - Transport Topics Online

A $9 billion patch bill was drafted by Sen. Finance Comm. Chair Ron Wyden to continue transportation spending to Dec. 31. Most of the funds come from a change in how Individual Retirement Accounts are administered and a heavy truck use tax increase.

June 26, 2014 - Roll Call

"What program would you cut to continue the same level of transportation spending without raising the gas tax, e.g. cancer treatment programs, Head Start?," asks Streetsblog USA's Tanya Snyder after reading Sen. Bob Corker's (R-Tenn.) recommendation.

May 29, 2014 - Streetsblog USA

Receiving a resounding vote of confidence from the Environment and Public Works Committee, the $265 billion, six-year MAP-21 reauthorization bill advanced on its path to keep federal transportation payments going to states through the summer.

May 19, 2014 - The Hill

Plenty, according to Tanya Snyder, Streetsblog USA editor, who finds Obama's Grow America plan far superior. Outside of not including a gas tax to fill the Trust Fund gap, she finds the proposal "underfunded and highway centric." She is not alone.

May 15, 2014 - Streetsblog USA

If Congress can't agree how to fund the Highway Trust Fund shortfall, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx warned state DOTs that he will be unable to reimburse them for funds already spent. The redline is the $4 billion mark projected to come July.

May 11, 2014 - The Wall Street Journal - Politics and Policy