The First Highway Trust Fund Bailout

Jeff Davis and the Eno Center for Transportation commemorated a inauspicious moment in U.S. infrastructure history on September 9: the 60th anniversary of the first bailout of the Highway Trust Fund.

On September 9, 1959, "the White House announced that President Eisenhower was requesting a bailout of the Highway Trust Fund – a $359 million “repayable advance” appropriation from the general fund of the Treasury," explains Davis. "Without it, the Trust Fund would run out of money and be unable to pay its bills in October 1959."

To fully explore the context and consequences of that moment in history, Davis has published a three-part series of essays, titled "The First Time the Highway Trust Fund Went Broke."

• Part 1: the 1958 Highway Act Makes Spending Unsustainable
• Part 2: Ike Requests a 50% Gas Tax Increase, Which No One Likes
• Part 3: Eisenhower Wears Down Resistance, Congress Fractures, and Compromise Is Reached