Ploy to End Saturday Postal Delivery to Bailout the Highway Trust Fund
By Gary Hoitsma l June 10, 2014
Selous Foundation for Public Policy Research News & Analysis
The nation’s transportation funding debate just gets curiouser and curiouser. In a surprise move , House Republican leaders let it be known they have decided to back a short-term General Fund transfer into the Highway Trust Fund to extend current programs for about eight months to May 2015. The transfer would be paid for through a controversial postal reform initiative that has already raised protests of opposition from key Senate Democrats. Meanwhile, the plan all but kills any small chance there may have been to find agreement on a longer-term multi-year transportation bill before the election. The news appears to have caught even some House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee members by surprise.
How to pay for a simple one-year bailout of the Highway Trust Fund at a cost hovering near $15 billion? That has been the question of the moment for House Republican leaders intent on avoiding a fiscal train wreck this summer that could force highway and transit programs to come to a grinding halt.
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