It’s summertime. It’s the season of the road trip. It’s also the season of road repair. In the hot-weather months before fall brings on the next frost, many states scramble to repair and rebuild damaged roadways. This work is paid for by the Highway Trust Fund.

However, you’d be forgiven if you didn’t notice this work going on lately. Highway funding has become a hotly debated issue in House and Senate, resulting in a wary Department of Transportation. In fact, the DOT sent letters to the states earlier this month saying that beginning August 1st, it would start restricting money for highway funding projects… including those already in the works.

There is some hope for the future of our highways, though. A small, very short-term compromise was reached in Congress. On Tuesday, the House passed an $11 billion highway funding plan that would patch the Highway Trust Fund for six months. Its large bipartisan support is likely to carry over into the Senate, meaning a few pot holes will get fixed this year.

Long term solutions seem to elude the legislature. There is a systemic shortfall in federal transportation funding, which means an uneasy future for motorists, truckers, construction workers and our economy.

Until the Congress can agree on the future of funding our nation’s highways, it would be wise to stock up on tire patches.