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Letter from Peter R. Orszag, Director Congressional Budget Office to Paul Ryan re: information about estimated spending from the Highway Trust Fund under three scenarios 1 (July 2008)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo9978 and id is 1 raw text is: CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE Peter R. Orszag, Director U.S. Congress Washington, DC 20515 July 25, 2008 Honorable Paul Ryan Ranking Member Committee on the Budget U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Dear Congressman: This letter responds to your request of July 18, 2008, for information about estimated spending from the Highway Trust Fund under three scenarios. The scenarios you specified include: Limiting spending in 2009 from the Highway Trust Fund to cash on hand; an $8 billion transfer of funds from the General Fund to the Highway Trust Fund; and a larger unspecified transfer of funds from the General Fund to the Highway Trust Fund to liquidate obligations from the trust fund through 2018. In each case, you asked CBO to assume that the 2009 obligation limitation-$41.2 billion-authorized in Public Law 109- 59 (the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users- SAFETEA-LU) is enacted. The Congress has not yet enacted an obligation limitation for this program for 2009. Limiting Outlays From the Highway Account Trust to the Fund's Available Cash If the obligation limitation authorized in SAFETEA-LU were enacted for 2009, and if the Highway Account of the Highway Trust Fund had sufficient balances, CBO estimates that outlays from the account, including transfers to the transit account of the trust fund, would total about $40 billion in fiscal year 2009. However, based on CBO's most recent revenue projections, we estimate that the cash receipts and balances available to that account will total about $36 billion in 2009. Thus, assuming that reimbursements to states would be limited to the amount of cash on hand in the Highway Account, spending in 2009 could be no more than around $36 billion-about $4 billion less than the outlays CBO estimates would occur under SAFETEA-LU if there were no shortfall. Those payments would be made later as cash became available. www.cbo.gov

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