CBO: House highway bill would widen trust fund deficit
Source: Roll Call
Posted July 10, 2026 at 6:23am
The House version of this year’s mega surface transportation reauthorization bill could increase the deficit anticipated in the Highway Trust Fund over the next five years despite the inclusion of new fees on electric vehicles and hybrids, according to the Congressional Budget Office
The CBO analysis, released Thursday, found that cumulative shortfalls expected by the end of 2031 under the bill would be $99.5 billion for the highway account and $48.2 billion for the transit account, based on historical spending rates and higher authorized amounts in the legislation.
Those metrics would be an increase from the CBO’s baseline projections for the HTF accounts published last month, which estimated $86 billion and $45.2 billion shortfalls for the highway and transit accounts, respectively.
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in May approved the measure with a strong bipartisan vote, 62-2. It would authorize $580 billion for highway and rail programs through fiscal 2031, with $474 billion coming from the HTF. The measure aims to supplement the trust fund with new annual registration fees for owners of electric and hybrid vehicles, but wouldn’t touch the main funding source: taxes on gasoline and diesel.
Read more: https://rollcall.com/2026/07/10/cbo-house-highway-bill-would-widen-trust-fund-deficit/
Link to Congressional Budget Office REPORT page - Estimated Effects of Selected Provisions of H.R. 8870, the BUILD America 250 Act
Link to Congressional Budget Office REPORT (PDF)_- https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2026-07/hr8870-htf.pdf