Max Baucus: “for several years now I have worked with the highway community to hold the Highway Trust Fund harmless with respect to…”

“for several years now I have worked with the highway community to hold the Highway Trust Fund harmless with respect to the ethanol subsidy. While it is good agriculture and energy policy to encourage alternative fuels, it should not be the Highway Trust Fund, and therefore the Nation's transportation system, that bears the burden of the ethanol subsidy. A few years ago I introduced a bill that transferred revenue from the general fund to the Trust Fund so it could be the general fund that would bear the responsibility rather than the Trust Fund. This Congress, Senator Grassley and I introduced a bill, S. 1548, that replaced the ethanol exemption with a credit and that transferred the 2.5 cents, currently retained by the general fund to the Highway Trust Fund. Although other provisions in S. 1548 are now contained in the energy bill conference agreement, including the new ethanol credit, the provisions most important to me did not make it in. I appreciate your commitment and that of Speaker Hastert and Ways and Means Chairman Thomas to ensure that the provisions in S. 1548, regarding the Highway Trust Fund will be enacted no later than February 29, 2004 which is the day that the TEA 21 extension expires.”