Highway Trust Fund

Photograph of a traffic jam in Miami along Interstate 95
Between 2008 and 2023, insufficient revenues in the Highway Trust Fund led the federal government to spend $275 billion in general tax dollars to keep the system solvent.[1]

The Highway Trust Fund is a transportation fund in the United States which receives money from a federal fuel tax of 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel fuel and related excise taxes.[2] It currently has two accounts, the Highway Account funding road construction and other surface transportation projects, and a smaller Mass Transit Account supporting mass transit. Separate from the Highway Trust Fund is the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund, which receives an additional 0.1 cents per gallon on gasoline and diesel, making the total amount of tax collected 18.5 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.5 cents per gallon on diesel fuel. The Highway Trust Fund was established in 1956 to finance the United States Interstate Highway System and certain other roads. The Mass Transit Account was created in 1982. The federal tax on motor fuels yielded $28.2 billion in 2006.[3]

  1. ^ "Testimony on the Status of the Highway Trust Fund: 2023 Update | Congressional Budget Office". October 18, 2023.
  2. ^ "Petroleum Marketing Explanatory Notes" (PDF). United States Energy Information Agency. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
  3. ^ Broder, John M. (April 29, 2008). "Democrats Divided Over Gas Tax Break". The New York Times. Retrieved May 1, 2008.