Online Campaign - #FixtheTrustFund

#FixtheTrustFund is an advocacy campaign urging Congress to restore the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) to solvency and ensure it has a sustained source of capital moving forward. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is behind the campaign. A related campaign is Faster Better Safer, a coalition ASCE is a member of and that the US Chamber of Commerce manages.

The HTF is the agency tasked with making grants to state and local governments to maintain, repair, and replace roads and bridges. Most of its funding is 18 cents a gallon, a figure set in 1993 that hasn't been increased or adjusted for inflation since. As a result, the HFT can't pay for much needed repairs. (ASCE gave the US transportation infrastructure a D on its 2014 report card.) In fact, the agency runs out of cash in May.

Raising the gas tax is the simplest solution. The idea has bipartisan support in Congress, but  #FixtheTrustFund doesn't explicitly call for it. This allows them to keep their options open since the White House and the chair of the US House Transportation Committee have ruled it out.

The website has some good, easy to understand information about the problem, but you have to scroll down to find it. They do highlight a piece "60 Minutes" did recently on the problem. It will be interesting to see how they and their allies can build momentum using social media. "Transportation Infrastructure" is not a sexy issue and #FixtheTrustFund screams of jargon.

Curious to me - but maybe it's my ignorance showing - why use the # in the name of the campaign? Presumably you would put in in a Tweet, not the organization's name. Anyone know of other examples?