Sen. Deb Fischer’s (R-Neb.) new highway funding plan would dedicate more than $107 billion over a five-year period from Customs and Border Patrol fees and revenue collected on freight cargo and passengers to the Highway Trust Fund—helping to secure its solvency while providing greater flexibility for states to speed up their construction programs. The revenue from tariffs, duties, taxes and user fees currently goes to the federal government’s general fund.
The bill would establish a partnership between states and the Federal Highway Administration that would give states the opportunity to acquire authority over the design, permitting and construction aspects of federal-aid highway projects in exchange for remitting 10 percent of their federal-aid highway dollars back to the federal agency.
