Senate Transportation hears state revenue options as experts warn federal highway fund shortfall

The Senate Transportation Committee heard an overview of state and federal transportation revenue options and near‑term risks to federal funding during a virtual briefing led by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

"We are essentially the trade association that represents all 52 state departments of transportation across the country," said Jim Timon, executive director of AASHTO, summarizing the association's role in convening state DOTs and collecting information on how states raise and use transportation revenue. Timon told senators that the federal landscape is strained: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provided "roughly, almost $600,000,000,000 over 5 years," but the Federal Highway Trust Fund has required repeated transfers from the U.S. general fund and risks running negative beginning in 2028 unless new revenue is identified.

Timon described the scale of recent federal support and the fiscal challenge:…