--- title: Congress Plays Chicken with Highway Funding description: The House and Senate have two competing versions of a temporary fix for the Highway Trust Fund. canonical: https://time.com/3059929/highway-funding-congress/ author: Jay Newton-Small article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-30T17:50:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:25:33.385Z article:section: Politics og:title: Congress Plays Chicken with Highway Funding og:description: The House and Senate have two competing versions of a temporary fix for the Highway Trust Fund. og:url: https://time.com/3059929/highway-funding-congress/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb94214dc5c7e1574/69869dd513c79f0d091934a0/highway-transit-fund.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4044 og:image:height: 2275 og:image:alt: National Labor Leaders Held Rally To Urge Congress To Replenish The Highway Trust Fund og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Congress Plays Chicken with Highway Funding twitter:description: The House and Senate have two competing versions of a temporary fix for the Highway Trust Fund. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb94214dc5c7e1574/69869dd513c79f0d091934a0/highway-transit-fund.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Congress Plays Chicken With Highway Funding > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Jul 30, 2014 5:50 PM UTC  Transit workers participate in a rally to urge Congress to replenish the Highway Trust Fund, on Capitol Hill, May 20, 2014 in Washington, D.C. Transit workers participate in a rally to urge Congress to replenish the Highway Trust Fund, on Capitol Hill, May 20, 2014 in Washington, D.C. Mark Wilson—Getty Images  by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Jul 30, 2014 5:50 PM UTC The House and Senate have two competing versions of a temporary fix for the Highway Trust Fund, which is set to run out of money at the beginning of August if nothing is done. The House passed its version of the $10.9 billion fund bailout on July 15, while the Senate passed a bill of its own Tuesday night. The problem, however, is that House Republicans object to how the Senate pays for its bill, arguing the upper chamber has left a $2 billion hole that’s unpaid for. “I just want to make clear: If the Senate sends a highway bill over here with those provisions, we’re just going to strip it out,” House Speaker John Boehner told reporters Tuesday. The legislative friction comes just as both chambers are expected to recess for five weeks at the end of this week, setting up a game of congressional chicken. The House plans to re-pass its version and send it back to the Senate before breaking for recess, thus leaving the Senate with the choice of defaulting or passing the House bill. If there’s enough time, however, the Senate could turn the tables on the lower chamber, passing its version of the bill and daring the House to not come back to work and prevent a default. Such games of chicken are common before recess breaks. In this case, what will most likely happen is the slower-moving Senate will likely accept and pass the House version. But all the ping-ponging doesn’t endear Congress to the states and companies depending on Highway Trust Fund money for projects—or to the American people at large. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3059929/highway-funding-congress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3059929/highway-funding-congress/"},"headline":"Congress Plays Chicken With Highway Funding","datePublished":"2014-07-30T17:50:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:25:33.385Z","description":"Galloping towards a five-week break, the two chambers race to stick the other with their version","url":"https://time.com/3059929/highway-funding-congress/","keywords":["Congress"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb94214dc5c7e1574/69869dd513c79f0d091934a0/highway-transit-fund.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jay Newton-Small","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb94214dc5c7e1574/69869dd513c79f0d091934a0/highway-transit-fund.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"National Labor Leaders Held Rally To Urge Congress To Replenish The Highway Trust Fund","caption":"National Labor Leaders Held Rally To Urge Congress To Replenish The Highway Trust Fund","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3059929/highway-funding-congress/","name":"Congress Plays Chicken With Highway Funding"}}]}] ```