Senate to hold highway bill hearing

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is scheduled to hearing about the possibility of passing a new bill to boost U.S. infrastructure funding on Wednesday. 

The hearing, which is the panel’s second infrastructure funding meeting this year, comes as lawmakers are facing a May 31 deadline for renewing the federal government’s current transportation spending measure. 

Lawmakers have struggled to come up with a way to pay for new round of transportation spending beyond the revenue that is collected by the 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal gas tax. 

{mosads}The gas tax has not been increased since 1993, and it has struggled to keep pace with mounting construction costs as cars have become more fuel efficient. 

The federal government normally spends about $50 billion per year on transportation projects, but the gas tax only brings around $34 billion annually at its current level. 

Transportation advocates have suggested increasing the gas tax as prices at the pump have fallen to their lowest levels in years recently, but lawmakers have been reluctant to ask drivers to pay more when they fill up to finance road projects. 

The Senate hearing Wednesday, which will be chaired by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), is intended to frame the difficult choices before lawmakers if they intend to prevent a bankruptcy in federal transportation funding this spring. 

The panel is scheduled to hear testimony from state transportation officials and business leaders on Wednesday.