II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5505 

To limit spending from the Highway Trust Fund, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 12, 2024 

Mr. LEE introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to 

the Committee on Environment and Public Works 

A BILL 

To limit spending from the Highway Trust Fund, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Balance the Highway 

5 Trust Fund Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. OBLIGATION LIMITATION. 

7 (a) GENERAL LIMITATION.—Subject to subsection 

8 (d) and notwithstanding any other provision of law, for 

9 each fiscal year, the obligations for Federal-aid highway 

10 and highway safety construction programs shall not exceed 

11 the net highway receipts most recently estimated by the 


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1 Secretary of the Treasury for that fiscal year under sec2 tion 9503(d)(1)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 

3 (b) DISTRIBUTION OF OBLIGATION AUTHORITY.— 

4 For each fiscal year, the Secretary of Transportation (re5 ferred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’)— 

6 (1) shall not distribute obligation authority pro7 vided by subsection (a) for the fiscal year for— 

8 (A) amounts authorized for administrative 

9 expenses and programs by section 104(a) of 

10 title 23, United States Code; and 

11 (B) amounts authorized for the Bureau of 

12 Transportation Statistics; 

13 (2) shall not distribute an amount of obligation 

14 authority provided by subsection (a) that is equal to 

15 the unobligated balance of amounts— 

16 (A) made available from the Highway 

17 Trust Fund (other than the Mass Transit Ac18 count) for Federal-aid highway and highway 

19 safety construction programs for previous fiscal 

20 years the funds for which are allocated by the 

21 Secretary (or apportioned by the Secretary 

22 under section 202 or 204 of title 23, United 

23 States Code); and 

24 (B) for which obligation authority was pro25 vided in a previous fiscal year; 


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1 (3) shall determine the proportion that— 

2 (A) the obligation authority provided by 

3 subsection (a) for the fiscal year, less the aggre4 gate of amounts not distributed under para5 graphs (1) and (2) of this subsection; bears to 

6 (B) the total of the sums authorized to be 

7 appropriated for the Federal-aid highway and 

8 highway safety construction programs, less the 

9 aggregate of the amounts not distributed under 

10 paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection; 

11 (4) shall distribute the obligation authority pro12 vided by subsection (a), less the aggregate amounts 

13 not distributed under paragraphs (1) and (2), for 

14 each of the programs (other than programs to which 

15 paragraph (1) applies) that are allocated by the Sec16 retary under this Act and title 23, United States 

17 Code, or apportioned by the Secretary under section 

18 202 or 204 of that title, by multiplying— 

19 (A) the proportion determined under para20 graph (3); by 

21 (B) the amounts authorized to be appro22 priated for each such program for the fiscal 

23 year; and 

24 (5) shall distribute the obligation authority pro25 vided by subsection (a), less the aggregate amounts 


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1 not distributed under paragraphs (1) and (2) and 

2 the amounts distributed under paragraph (4), for 

3 Federal-aid highway and highway safety construc4 tion programs that are apportioned by the Secretary 

5 under title 23, United States Code (other than the 

6 amounts apportioned under sections 202 and 204 of 

7 title 23, United States Code) in the proportion 

8 that— 

9 (A) amounts authorized to be appropriated 

10 for the programs that are apportioned under 

11 title 23, United States Code, to each State for 

12 the fiscal year; bears to 

13 (B) the total of the amounts authorized to 

14 be appropriated for the programs that are ap15 portioned under title 23, United States Code, to 

16 all States for the fiscal year. 

17 (c) REDISTRIBUTION OF UNUSED OBLIGATION AU18 THORITY.—Notwithstanding subsection (b), the Secretary 

19 shall, after August 1 of each fiscal year— 

20 (1) revise a distribution of the obligation au21 thority made available under subsection (b) if an 

22 amount distributed cannot be obligated during that 

23 fiscal year; and 

24 (2) redistribute sufficient amounts to those 

25 States able to obligate amounts in addition to those 


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1 previously distributed during that fiscal year, giving 

2 priority to those States having large unobligated bal3 ances of funds apportioned under sections 144 (as in 

4 effect on the day before the date of enactment of 

5 MAP–21 (Public Law 112–141)) and 104 of title 

6 23, United States Code. 

7 (d) APPLICABILITY OF OBLIGATION LIMITATIONS TO

8 TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH PROGRAMS.— 

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para10 graph (2), obligation limitations imposed by sub11 section (a) shall apply to contract authority for 

12 transportation research programs carried out under 

13 chapter 5 of title 23, United States Code. 

14 (2) EXCEPTION.—Obligation authority made 

15 available under paragraph (1) shall— 

16 (A) remain available for a period of 4 fis17 cal years; and 

18 (B) be in addition to the amount of any 

19 limitation imposed on obligations for Federal20 aid highway and highway safety construction 

21 programs for future fiscal years. 

22 (e) REDISTRIBUTION OF CERTAIN AUTHORIZED

23 FUNDS.— 

24 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after 

25 the date of distribution of obligation authority under 


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1 subsection (b) for each fiscal year, the Secretary 

2 shall distribute to the States any funds (excluding 

3 funds authorized for the program under section 202 

4 of title 23, United States Code) that— 

5 (A) are authorized to be appropriated for 

6 the fiscal year for Federal-aid highway pro7 grams; and 

8 (B) the Secretary determines will not be 

9 allocated to the States (or will not be appor10 tioned to the States under section 204 of title 

11 23, United States Code), and will not be avail12 able for obligation, for the fiscal year because 

13 of the imposition of any obligation limitation for 

14 the fiscal year. 

15 (2) RATIO.—Funds shall be distributed under 

16 paragraph (1) in the same proportion as the dis17 tribution of obligation authority under subsection 

18 (b)(5). 

19 (3) AVAILABILITY.—Funds distributed to each 

20 State under paragraph (1) shall be available for any 

21 purpose described in section 133(b) of title 23, 

22 United States Code. 

23 SEC. 3. OBLIGATION LIMITATION. 

24 Section 5338 of title 49, United States Code, is 

25 amended by adding at the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘(f) OBLIGATION LIMITATION.—Notwithstanding 

2 subsection (a) or any other provision of law, for each fiscal 

3 year, the total of all obligations from amounts made avail4 able from the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust 

5 Fund by subsection (a) and any other provision of law 

6 shall not exceed the net mass transit receipts most re7 cently estimated for that fiscal year by the Secretary of 

8 the Treasury under section 9503(e)(4) of the Internal 

9 Revenue Code of 1986.’’. 

10 SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

11 This Act and the amendments made by this Act take 

12 effect October 1, 2025. 

Æ 


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