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Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on June 17 said a federal highway account that helps states pay for roadway projects is still projected to run out of money by late August, threatening many large-scale construction projects around the country.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) has introduced a bill to replace the gasoline tax with a barrel tax on oil, eliminate the sales tax on truck tires, and index the diesel tax to inflation.

Senate tax writers will examine ways to keep the Highway Trust Fund’s road and transit programs funded before the account runs out of money later this summer.

Trucking industry leaders have called on the Obama administration to unveil a transportation plan that focuses on long-term, user-fee solutions for the Highway Trust Fund, not quick fixes.

With the Highway Trust Fund moving toward insolvency, transportation experts said they expect Congress to approve a short-term bill this summer to avoid delays for major highway projects.

The federal Highway Trust Fund will have “insufficient revenues to meet obligations” beginning in fiscal 2015, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s latest estimate of the president’s budget proposal.

Transfers to the federal Highway Trust Fund from the general fund would have to be offset by savings in accounts elsewhere in the budget, under a proposal offered by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).