Federal Aid to Highways

The highway aid program provides financial assistance to states for building and maintaining highway systems and for urban and rural transportation programs. Programs funded include the construction and maintenance of the interstate system, construction and reconstruction of a state&s;s primary highway system, aid for planning and construction of local roads, replacement and rehabilitation of bridges, safety programs, and provisions for emergency relief. The highway aid program is financed through the highway trust fund with revenues from the federal gasoline tax and other transportation-related excise taxes. A unique provision of the highway trust fund allows the appropriations committees some control over the timing of obligations. To exert control over expenditures from the highway trust fund, the reconciliation act reduced the obligational authority from the $9.6 billion contained in the CBO baseline to $8.2 billion. The Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act restricted fiscal year 1982 obligational authority for the highway aid program to $8.0 billion.