Dive Brief:

• The appropriations bill that Congress passed last week to fund the government for the rest of Fiscal 2014 puts highway and mass transit spending at the levels the MAP-21 program authorized, but the Highway Trust Fund will probably run out of money before Sept. 30 anyway, the Department of Transportation says.
• Sequestration had cut into funds that were to move from the General Fund to the trust fund, and $104 billion to get through the end of this year became $9.7 billion.
• The department's Mass Transit Fund is not in much better shape because its allocation was eroded, too.

Dive Insight:

Spending from the Highway Trust Fund exceeds revenues because of the much-discussed fact that the federal fuel has gone unchanged for two decades. It was going to be broke at the end of this fiscal year anyway, but now that seems closer. Public infrastructure spending has been falling nationally, hurting contractors who focus on road and bridge work.