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March 24: Congress' Chances of Getting a Transportation Bill Passed This Session: 0 from The Infrastructurist
- Federal transportation funding got a much-needed reprieve last week when President Obama signed the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, which will ensure sufficient federal highway and transit funding for the near future. Specifically, the bill moves $19.5 billion from the General Fund into the Highway Trust Fund (to reimburse the HTF for interest payments not received since 1998) and allows the HTF to heretofore collect interest on its deposits. The General Fund transfer, when added to the projected revenue stream from the federal gas tax (which, as we all know, is still at an astoundingly low 18.4 cents per gallon), is expected to fully fund highway and transit programs through the end of 2012 and into 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
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