From 2008 to 2010, Congress authorized the transfer of $35 billion from the General Fund of the U.S. Treasury to keep the trust fund solvent.[8]
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected in 2012 that the fund's Highway Account and Mass Transit Account would become insolvent by 2014. CBO said that although vehicles would travel more miles in the future (therefore consuming more taxable fuel), congressional refusal to increase the fuel tax means that the fund receives less money. CBO's insolvency projection assumed that Congress will not increase transportation spending beyond inflation-adjusted 2012 levels.[8]
As of June 2015, the Congressional Budget Office projected that payments from the Highway Trust Fund to the states would need to be delayed at some point before the end of federal fiscal year 2015 (i.e., before the end of September 2015) to keep the balance above zero, without either some increase in the federal motor fuel excise tax (or allocation of other revenues to the Trust Fund) or a Congressional reduction of Trust Fund spending commitments.[9]
In 2013, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supported raising the federal gasoline tax to keep the fund solvent.[10]
The United States Congress passed a stopgap plan on July 31, 2014 to prevent a funding lapse. [11]
As of 2015, despite a considerable drop in gas prices, there was still little support among the US public or Congress for an increase of the gasoline excise tax[12] which is a regressive tax.[13]
An extension passed by Congress in July 2015 is expected to keep the Highway Trust Fund funded until June 2016.[14]
