Summary: Congress is now considering ways to reauthorize federal-aid highway and mass transit programs for fiscal years 1992 through 1996. The Highway Trust Fund is the mechanism that provides financing for these programs. Revenues generated by highway user taxes, as well as the interest these revenues earn, accrue to the trust fund and are used to reimburse states and transit authorities for expenditures incurred on approved federal-aid highway and mass transit projects. This fact sheet provides information on four issues related to the Highway Trust Fund: (1) the sources and amounts of trust fund revenues generated during fiscal years 1987 through 1991; (2) the use of these revenues; (3) the estimated balance remaining in the trust fund when federal-aid highway and mass transit programs expire at the end of fiscal year 1991; and (4) the influence that the Budget Enforcement Act of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 could have on surface transportation spending during the next reauthorization period.
