Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Transportation, which keeps track of the dwindling cash in the Highway Trust Fund, reports that the account is moving faster than expected toward a balance below which the agency will have to start using cash-management strategies to stretch what's left.
• When the cash balance in the highway account slips under $4 billion, DOT said, it will have to start figuring out ways to manage what's left, such as paying states less frequently or paying only part of state claims.
• The fund is expected to crash by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30; there have been various proposals for funding it, including the president's proposed budget, but nothing is near being enacted yet.

Dive Insight:

States cannot run deficits in their budgets, so the prospect of losing the major federal pipeline for highway-construction money is prompting state officials to plan accordingly. Arkansas has, for example, suspended 10 projects because it cannot count on the federal money it planned on having to fund them.