I have a feeling that this will NOT pass... raising gas prices by 40 more cents a gallon??? Even though it will be a "slow increase", it will still put a hardship already in place for some commuters.

Commuters who are contributing to the decay of the roads. It's completely logical and reasonable. I think that the study should have started with taking all taxes for gas and diverting them from the random programs they go to and make it for road repairs. I am also of the opinion that we could tack on a small surcharge for every over-the-road shipment made.

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Gas prices in the US will be increasing toward the $3.50 per gallon national average. That is going to cause inflation for all goods and services dependent on the price of gas, such as food prices at the local supermarket, the price of clothing that is trucked into chain stores, etc....

My second concern if the last over budget Highway Bill that was passed with numerous pork projects attached. Are we willing to pay brutal prices at the pump only to find out we are funding eradicating tree snakes in Hawaii (a butt kiss for the billionaire big sugar industry), additional funding for converting Tobacco crop lands to other crops (a butt kiss to Phillip Morris and other big Republican donors in the Tobacco industry) or even worse - subsidies for multi billionaire ExxonMobile.

What we really needed was a Highway Bill without pork, take away all subsidies to oil corporate giants, take away all subsidies for corn ethanol, and provide incentives for the development of ethanol from switchgrass and biodeisel from algae.

That's not just the Highway Bill either...

That's ALL of 'em...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

Yes, it is absolutely every bill that goes through Congress. The one that is appalling is the yearly "Emergency Funding" Bill for our troops in the mideast (allegedly). So why isn't that funding absorbed into the yearly Dept of Defense Bill. The DOD budget is designated for the military only - it is protected. So when you hear a legislator shedding tears for our troops in the mideast to promote an Emergency Funding Bill, what you are looking at is a spending on credit addict going through withdrawal symptoms and wanting the next fix. How about eradicating tree snakes in Hawaii, a landscape/maintenance contract on a closed military base in Alaska for some legislator's relative, or promotion for the annual Lewis and Clark celebration in the NW states coming out of money for our troops while our troops are having to scavenge for metal in landfills to retrofit their vehicles, buy their own QUALITY bullet proof vests, etc...

They just finished all the funding bills for fiscal 2008, and there has bee a 426% increase in pork according to the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Your a little off on that...

You want to know why the "emergency funding" wasn't absorbed into a Dept. of Defense Bill...

It was...

Although there is no SINGLE Dept. of Defense bill...It's part of an even larger spending bill...It's not a standalone...

Here's the lastest one from last month...

Senate approves $70 billion for Iraq-Afghanistan

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

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I am also of the opinion that we could tack on a small surcharge for every over-the-road shipment made.
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Almost all deliveries and transportation tickets have already been "fuel surcharged" to defer the increased costs of fuel. Those trucks on the highway also already pay some pretty large fees for their licenses and permits and others fees imposed on them(typical license plate fees are in the hundreds of dollars not to mention other fees and required stickers). These charges will be passed on to the consumers so as always any tax on a business is an increase of costs to the consumer.

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Last year's Minneapolis bridge collapse killed 13 and spotlighted the nation's decaying infrastructure.
The two-year study being released Tuesday by the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, the first to recommend broad changes after the devastating bridge collapse in Minnesota last August, warns that urgent action is needed to avoid future disasters.
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But the investigation determined that the bridge collapsed because of an engineering/construction error. A steel plate that supported steel beams was of insufficient thickness. Kind of reminds me of how the 9/11 commission about an attack became an investigation on the "Iraq war" that EVERYONE agrees had "no connection".

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"Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well. The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly, accurately, creatively and without self delusion---In the long run these are the only people that count."Robert Heinlein