{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.donnelly.senate.gov/newsroom/press/donnelly-flake-states-deserve-fair-share-of-federal-highway-funds", "Donnelly, Flake: States Deserve Fair Share of Federal Highway Funds", "2015-11-18", "2015", "2015-11", "Democrat", "House", "IN", "Joe Donnelly", "D000607", "www.donnelly.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Donnelly, Flake: States Deserve Fair Share of Federal Highway Funds\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tSenators lead bipartisan group in letter urging Congress to fix funding of federal highway programs in final agreement on long-term highway legislation\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWednesday, November 18, 2015\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington, D.C. Today, U.S. Senators Joe Donnelly (D-IN) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) led a letter with a bipartisan group of Senate colleagues to the leaders of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and the HouseCommittee onTransportationand Infrastructureurging that any long-term transportation authorization ensures fair funding for all states. Afterpassing long-term highway fundinglegislation, the House and Senate are negotiating a final agreement.\r\nDonnelly and Flake wrote, in part, Although we are all committed to the timely passage of a long-term transportation bill, the bills current calculation of minimum state apportionments would result in significantly less federal funding for the states we represent. We believe that any long-term transportation reauthorization should address this issue As we work together to implement a long-term highway bill, we have the opportunity to make a simple change that will greatly benefit infrastructure projects nationwide. We look forward to working with you to ensure that all states receive their fair share of federal transportation funding.\r\nIn September, Donnelly and Flake introduced bipartisan legislation that would fix funding of federal highway programs so that every state would receive at least 95% of the states portion of contributions to the Highway Trust Fund. Currently, Indiana is only slated to receivea share of highway funding equal to91% of itsshare ofHighway Trust Fund contributions. The Donnelly-Flake bill is nearly identical to the amendment Donnelly and Flake introduced to the Senate version of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization bill in July 2015.\r\nText of the letter led by Donnelly and Flake to leaders of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and House Transportation & Infrastructure is below. A signed PDF is available here.\r\nNovember 18, 2015\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Honorable Jim Inhofe\r\nChairman\r\nCommittee on Environment and\r\nPublic Works\r\nU.S. Senate\r\nWashington, DC 20510\r\n\r\nThe Honorable Bill Shuster\r\nChairman\r\nTransportation and Infrastructure Committee\r\nU.S. House of Representatives\r\nWashington, DC 20515\r\n\r\nThe Honorable Barbara Boxer\r\nRanking Member\r\nCommittee on Environment and\r\nPublic Works\r\nU.S. Senate\r\nWashington, DC 20510\r\n\r\nThe Honorable Peter DeFazio\r\nRanking Member\r\nTransportation and Infrastructure\r\nCommittee\r\nU.S. House of Representatives\r\nWashington, DC 20515\r\nDear Chairmen Inhofe and Shuster, and Ranking Members Boxer and DeFazio:\r\nWe write to request that any long-term transportation authorization ensures fair funding for all states. Although we are all committed to the timely passage of a long-term transportation bill, the bills current calculation of minimum state apportionments would result in significantly less federal funding for the states we represent. We believe that any long-term transportation reauthorization should address this issue.\r\nThe inequity in the current formula is a result of transfers from the General Treasury to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) and can be fixed by a simple adjustment in the state apportionment calculations to ensure that a states share of total apportionments is at least equal to 95 percent of that states share of contributions to the HTF. With each state having a great need for transportation funding, the shortcomings offered by the current formula is being felt in each of our state infrastructure budgets and warrants an appropriate fix. \r\nPrevious surface transportation authorizations contained provisions designed to ensure a fair, minimum return to those states that contribute a higher share to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) than they receive in return, also known as donor states. Currently, federal law requires that donor states receive at least 95 cents for every dollar they have invested in the HTF; however, because of the way the formula is currently drafted, some states are receiving returns of federal funding significantly below 95 percent. Updating the formula to allow states to receive 95 percent of their share of contributions to the HTF would bring current law in line with the original intent of the 95 percent threshold.  \r\nWe believe that every state deserves its fair share of federal highway funding. As we work together to implement a long-term highway bill, we have the opportunity to make a simple change that will greatly benefit infrastructure projects nationwide. We look forward to working with you to ensure that all states receive their fair share of federal transportation funding.\r\nSincerely,\r\nU.S. Senator Joe Donnelly\r\nU.S. Senator Jeff Flake\r\nU.S. Senator Dan Coats\r\nU.S. Senator John McCain\r\nU.S. Senator Jerry Moran\r\nU.S. Senator Al Franken\r\nU.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin\r\nU.S. Senator Richard Burr\r\nU.S. Senator Thom Tillis\r\nU.S. Senator Gary Peters\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.donnelly.senate.gov/newsroom/press/donnelly-flake-states-deserve-fair-share-of-federal-highway-funds"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6073333099484444, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}