August 3, 2021 – The Highway Trust Fund was just thrown a lifeline. A $118 billion bailout of the Highway Trust Fund from the Treasury’s general fund was slipped into the ever-evolving infrastructure bill text at the last minute. I could have predicted there would be something in the bill at some point, given lawmakers’ inability to agree on user-fee reforms or tax increases at the pump. At least $274 billion of the infrastructure bill’s $550 billion in new spending would go toward transportation — a walloping one-time infusion of dollars in the nation’s roads, bridges, highways, ports, airports, rail and transit.