Sponsor
Mike Lee
Senator · R-UT
Senator · R-UT
The bill enforces fiscal discipline by tying highway and transit obligations to current Highway Trust Fund receipts—improving predictability and reducing unfunded liabilities—but at the cost of smaller or more variable near-term infrastructure and transit investment, potential project delays, and uneven impacts across States and workers.
State and local governments and transit agencies: receive predictable, annual obligation limits tied to Treasury's Highway Trust Fund receipts, reducing the risk of overcommitments and unfunded liabilities and making year-to-year planning more fiscally disciplined.
State and local governments: unused obligation authority is redistributed after August 1 to States that can obligate it, helping shift funds to projects likely to be spent that fiscal year and improving the chance that available federal funds are actually used.
Researchers and state transportation agencies: research contract authority is preserved with a four-year availability window, allowing multi-year transportation research projects to continue despite annual obligation limits.
State and local governments, transit riders, transportation workers, and contractors: caps tied to Treasury revenue estimates can reduce or delay highway and transit projects and maintenance when receipts are low, slowing infrastructure improvements and service expansions.
Smaller-capacity States and localities: may receive reduced shares if redistribution prioritizes States with large unobligated balances, producing uneven funding outcomes and disadvantaging jurisdictions less able to obligate quickly.
Local and state governments and transit agencies: face budgeting uncertainty when annual caps fluctuate with Treasury receipts estimates, complicating multi-year planning and grant management.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Caps annual federal obligations for highway and mass transit programs to the Treasury’s most recent net receipts estimates and sets allocation/redistribution rules.
Official title: Limit spending from the Highway Trust Fund, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 5, 2026 by Mike Lee · Last progress February 5, 2026
Limits how much the federal government may obligate each year for highway and highway-safety construction programs and for mass transit by tying annual obligation authority to the Treasury Department’s most recent estimates of net Highway Trust Fund receipts. It requires the Transportation Secretary to allocate that limited obligation authority among programs and states, to redistribute unused authority midyear with priority for states holding large unobligated balances, and makes related adjustments for certain transportation research contract authority. The law takes effect October 1, 2027.