Dive Brief:

• The week began with more hope for the Highway Trust Fund than there has been in a while, with the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee each passing a version of a rescue bill late last week.
• The bills differ in how they would structure the plan, and the Senate bill does not include a House provision for the government to keep collecting the 18.4-cents-per-gallon gas tax past SAept. 30, but they both set a rescue figure of $10.8 billion.
• Both plans also are short-term, giving the fund what officials believe it needs to keep paying for state construction projects into spring 2015 and past this fall's elections.

Dive Insight:

It comes as no surprise that Congress will look for a kick-the-can solution to the problem of states losing their construction money and, according to the federal Department of Transportation, 700,000 jobs going away. The road is not long -- less than a year. The new Congress elected this fall will have to deal with structural problems, such as the gas tax not having gone up since 1993 and owners of fuel-efficient cars buying less gas even at the 21-year-old rate.