Dive Brief:

• Lawmakers have gotten no slack among transportation interests for the eight-month refueling of the federal Highway Trust Fund that passed as Congress was packing for its August recess.
• Former U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who's now co-chair of an advocacy group called Building America's Future, said the $10.8 billion patch to prevent the fund from going dry next month was useless in terms of "developing any kind of planning or vision."
• The head of the Association of Equipment Distributors and the president of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association both said the patch was better than letting the fund fail, but hardly an answer to a problem that has been seen coming for years.

Dive Insight:

LaHood's group makes no bones about the need for a 10-cents-per-gallon increase in the fuel tax that powers the trust fund. The equipment distributors say there has to be more money coming in, though they won't say whether it should be tax option or something else. ARTBA said Congress needs to step up to finding a permanent solution this year and not wait for the clock to be almost out of time again next May.