Hearings Scheduled on Funding Highway and Transit Programs

This week both the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee have scheduled hearings to consider ways to pay for the Highway Trust Fund’s road and transit programs.  The House Ways and Means Committee’s hearing is scheduled for June 17 and the Senate Finance Committee hearing is scheduled for June 18. The hearings could shed light on how Congress would fund the road and transit programs which expire on July 31.

The hearings will come a week before a June 24 markup by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee of its highway programs portion of a long-term reauthorization.  A number of state officials have urged Congress to provide long-term certainty and more funding for surface transportation programs, and have said recent short-term extensions have slowed infrastructure investments.  States have already cancelled or postponed $2 billion worth of projects this year due to the uncertainty in highway funding.

The hearings provide NGVAmerica with an opportunity to urge both the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committees to include a proposal that would tax LNG on a DGE basis. Taxing LNG on a DGE basis will remove an artificial barrier that is a significant disincentive for the use of LNG.  Several bills that change the taxation of LNG to be on a DGE basis have been introduced in the Congress, including S. 917 in the U.S. Senate and H.R. 1665 in the House of Representatives.