In their effort to find long-term means of maintaining the Highway Trust Fund, the Bipartisan Policy Center has launched a new project known as the Great American Rebuild Initiative, to be led by two former U.S. representatives.
Under former Reps. Bill Shuster (R-PA) and Joe Crowley (D-NY), the initiative is exclusively focused on finding ways to fully fund American infrastructure and end federal reliance on the gas tax in the process.
“With the greater adoption of electric vehicles and more efficient gas-powered vehicles, the gas tax is increasingly untenable as a long-term funding source,” Shuster said. “Even if the gas tax were raised by 20 cents per gallon, as some interest groups suggested, Washington would still face a long-term funding crisis. Congress can no longer avoid a comprehensive examination of the federal role in funding our nation’s transportation infrastructure and the best means to meet those obligations.”
Without revision, the Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that current spending levels will require average annual bailouts of $20 billion per year to maintain existing infrastructure. Those figures could go as high as $1 trillion in 2019 as the federal budget becomes an increasingly hot button issue.
The rebuild initiative will review potential revenue sources and assemble recommendations for improvements and funding for trust fund programs.
“There is bipartisan agreement that infrastructure needs to be addressed, but no consensus on how to pay for those essential upgrades. Now is the time to come together and forge a new path forward to ensure our infrastructure can meet the needs of our economy,” Crowley said.
The BPC’s latest project is especially motivated by the impending expiration of the federal FAST act, which authorizes funding for various transportation infrastructure.