Americans for Tax Reform and its Cost of Government Center strongly urge Senators to vote no on the Highway Bill on the Senate floor today. The bill does nothing to reform the broken highway system and spends $109 billion over the next two years.
This bill is little more than another stop-gap measure to maintain current bloated spending levels. S. 1813 continues the practice of pilfering Highway Trust Fund monies for transit and other purposes; an approach that is expected to bankrupt the fund by next year.
The Trust Fund has, for too long, been used as a constant source of funding for parochial transit projects, rewarding lawmakers who maintain the status quo with pork for their districts. Lawmakers interested in investing in American infrastructure must first ensure a solvent Highway Trust Fund by reforming failed transportation policy. The Senate Highway bill is a step in the opposite direction.