Washington – Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL) introduced the Fair Allocation of Highway Funds Act. The bipartisan measure would make sure states, including Illinois, receive a fair share of transportation funding through the Highway Trust Fund.

Under the current allocation system, transportation funds are distributed from the Highway Trust Fund without considering a state’s share of the transfer from the U.S. Treasury needed to make up the shortfall from the gas tax. As a result, some states receive as much as six times more funding than they contribute to the fund while others receive far less than they paid. This legislation would require that states receive credit for their contribution to the General Fund transfer.

“Illinois and many other states don’t receive fair shares of federal funding for transportation projects because of a flawed budgetary method that hurts more populous states,” said Foster. “Illinois residents are rightly concerned about the safety of the roads and bridges they rely on every day. They deserve to know the federal government is fairly allocating transportation funding so we can make the necessary infrastructure investments that our state needs.”