Dive Brief:

• The federal Department of Transportation told states Tuesday that their allocations from the Highway Trust Fund will be coming twice a month rather than daily, beginning Aug. 8, if Congress has not refueled the fund by then.
• The fund has been running dry because income from gas taxes are less than the costs of construction and repair, and it will begin to sputter into red ink next month on its way to being dry by the start of Fiscal 2015 on Oct. 1.
• Secretary Anthony Foxx wrote to state agencies telling them, "As we approach [trust-fund] insolvency, the department will be forced to limit payments to manage the reduced levels of cash available in the trust fund" while it hopes the House and Senate can act on their rescue plans and reconcile them and pass something before the members all leave town Aug. 1.

Dive Insight:

The trust fund is caught in the usual dispute between the Democratic Senate and the Republican House on fiscal issues, between trying to find revenue sources and solving the shortage by making cuts elsewhere. Each chamber may act next week, but that gets them only part of the way to a solution.