The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has reviewed the conference agreement for H.R. 22, the FAST Act. CBO’s estimates of the budgetary impact of enacting the bill, including the status of the Highway Trust Fund under provisions of the FAST Act, are included in the enclosed tables.
CBO estimates that:
Changes in direct spending and revenues from enacting the conference agreement would reduce budget deficits by $71 billion over the 2016-2025 period (see Tables 1 and 2). (Following the direction in section 3302 of the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2016, which specifies the treatment of transfers from the general fund of the Treasury to the Highway Trust Fund for budget enforcement purposes in the House of Representatives, CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would reduce budget deficits by $1 billion over the 2016-2025 period.)
Assuming appropriation actions consistent with the conference agreement, implementing the major provisions of the legislation would result in additional discretionary spending totaling $201 billion over the 2016-2020 period (see Table 4).
All told, under H.R. 22, spending from the Highway Trust Fund would total $280 billion over the 2016-2020 period, and revenues and interest credited to the fund would amount to $208 billion (see Table 5). In addition, $70 billion would be transferred to the trust fund, largely from the general fund of the Treasury.
Implementing the FAST Act would lead to a balance at the end of fiscal year 2020 of approximately $8 billion in the highway account of the Highway Trust Fund and about $2 billion in the transit account of the Highway Trust Fund.
Enacting the legislation would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2026.
