Powerful Senator Max Baucus to Announce Introduction of First of Eight TEA21 Reauthorization Bills

As he pledged before The HwyUsers Executive Committee, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), who chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee and is the ranking Democrat on the Environment & Public Works Committee, will introduce a series of eight TEA21 reathorization bills. The first, dealing with the vital issue of highway revenues, is expected to be introduced the week of June 17. Called "The MEGA TRUST Act," it would, among other things: 1) restore the estimated $1 billion loss to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) resulting from ethanol use, crediting the trust fund with all taxes on ethanol and shifting the cost of the gasohol tax subsidy to general taxpayers, 2) restore interest collections on the HTF surplus (this practice was ended with TEA21), and 3) extend highway user taxes, extend current highway user taxes due to expire.

The Highway Users strongly urges its membership to seek Senate cosponsors for The MEGA TRUST Act. "While Senator Baucus’ approach to transportation is a western approach, it is also a decidedly pro-highway approach," said HwyUsers president and CEO William Fay. "The highway community needs to work hard to ensure that his legislation receives the congressional support it deserves."

To access documents, select from the links below:

• For a summary of the bill, click here.
• For a copy of the Baucus letter urging congressional sponsorship, click here.
• To see a copy of the bill in full, click here for the PDF. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file. (To download this free software, click here.)