HIGHWAY BILL EXTENSION INCLUDES 2.5-CENT ETHANOL PROVISION

A bill allowing continued funding for highway projects from Sept. 30 -- the end of the 2004 fiscal year -- to June 1, 2005, transfers 2.5-cents-per-gallon in excise taxes from ethanol sales out of the general fund and into the highway trust fund, retroactive to the beginning of the 2004 fiscal year. With the House and Senate unable to reconcile differences on a massive highway bill, and states facing the loss of tens of billions of dollars in highway project...