July 10, 2015

With the Highway Trust Fund set to expire three weeks from today on July 31, 2015, the Washington Post has published an opinion piece detailing how a celebrated conservative President used a conservative argument to get Congress to do something unexpected but necessary — raise the gas tax. Read it here: “Follow Reagan’s example, and fill up America’s highway fund”

Joshua Schank – former Transportation Policy Advisor to Hillary Clinton and now President/CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation – and Jeff Davis – Eno Fellow and founder of Eno Transportation Weekly – co-authored the piece. In it, the two follow up on Davis’ comprehensive report entitled Reagan Devolution: The Real Story of the 1982 Gas Tax Increase.

Released in May, the report details the story behind the Highway Revenue Act of 1982. While seen as a triumph of bipartisanship, the politics behind the increase were much more complicated. The report sheds light on how Congress can potentially work together today to reach a solution for our current highway trust fund crisis.