News release: “U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters today directed the Federal Highway Administration to take immediate steps to protect the solvency of the highway account of the Highway Trust Fund and called on Congress to act quickly to finally address this long-predicted problem…The Secretary said the legislation was needed now because Congress had failed to heed over three years of warnings from the President and the Department about the long-predicted highway trust fund shortfall. She added that the recent and sudden decline in American driving and the resulting decline in gas tax revenue during the summer had accelerated the predicted shortfall.”