Tell Your Representative: Help Keep the Highway Trust Fund Solvent by Supporting the DRIVE Act

As one of our more than 6.9 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative today and ask him or her to support the Developing Roadway Infrastructure for a Vibrant Economy (DRIVE) Act, H.R. 1461. Introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), this bill would be a large step towards restoring the solvency of the federal Highway Trust Fund.

The Highway Trust Fund, funded by the federal gas tax, is intended to provide for the construction and maintenance of federal road infrastructure. Over the years, the fund has ceased to be self-sustaining via the gas tax, and has instead required frequent bailouts to the tune of billions of dollars.

Given this situation, it should be obvious that the limited resources of the Highway Trust Fund should only be used to fund actual road infrastructure. Yet, the trust fund has a huge quantity of money earmarked for use in non-highway mass transit programs such as light rail, as well as smaller amounts for “non-motorized” transport that go to projects such as bike trails and pedestrian walkways.

The DRIVE Act eliminates the authorization for much of this non-highway spending, so that the money in the fund can actually go to its intended purpose – maintaining the roads and bridges that keep interstate commerce flowing. This should be a common-sense reform that makes the task of balancing the Highway Trust Fund’s budget far simpler – without the use of ridiculous measures such as raising the gas tax.

Thus, I hope you’ll contact your Representative and ask him or her to support the DRIVE Act, H.R. 1461, and to co-sponsor the bill if he or she has not already done so.

Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe
President and CEO,
FreedomWorks