WASHINGTON – Last week, in addition to passing a three-month funding patch for the federal highway trust fund, the Senate also passed its version of a long-term transportation bill. The six year federal highway and transit bill only includes three years of funding for these programs, which includes a revenue source long opposed by NACS. The Senate included using money from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) trust fund. Specifically, the bill would transfer $100 million in 2015, 2016 and 2017 to the federal highway trust fund. 

This is not the first time Congress has raided the LUST trust fund to pay for the federal highway program. In 2012, it transferred $2.4 billion, and in 2014, it took another $1 billion. The LUST trust fund, which is financed through a 1/10th of a cent per gallon fee on gasoline and diesel fuel, currently has roughly $485 million in it. The funds are supposed to go toward protecting the environment by ensuring that tank owners take appropriate measures in storing their fuel and taking care of their underground storage tanks and to help states in cleaning up contamination of from abandoned tanks. Unfortunately, Congress has underfunded these valuable programs and spent these dollars elsewhere.

NACS has always opposed efforts to siphon off much needed dollars from the LUST trust fund to pay for non-related programs, such as federal highways. Most recently, NACS, along with SIGMA and PMAA, sent a letter to key Senate committees opposing this effort . 

The House of Representatives, meanwhile, has not taken action beyond the passage of the short-term funding patch. It is expected that they will work on their version of a long-term highway bill in the fall. NACS will continue working with other industry groups to protect the LUST trust fund from being raided yet again.