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With the clock ticking, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is pitching a temporary solution to sustain the nearly depleted federal Highway Trust Fund through the end of the year – or at least through the summer construction season.

The Preserving America’s Transit and Highways (PATH) Act, is subject to a markup session by the Finance Committee on Thursday, which is the last workday before Congress breaks for the Fourth of July recess. It includes $9 billion that would be generated over 10 years from multiple revenue sources; a few would be lowering the threshold for heavy vehicle taxes, spurring tax payments by revoking or denying passports of evaders and requiring distributions of inherited IRAs within five years.

Wyden, who earlier said that failure to find a long-term solution to the transportation funding crisis would be a “tragic mistake,” called his short-term patch “an imperative first step” toward a long-term solution.

With Congress in an election year, Wyden may have had no other choice than to push the can down the road. He said the extra time will help his committee find a long-term plan.

The much bigger challenge appears to be coming up with approximately $89 billion on top of projected revenues to keep the trust fund solvent through 2020, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

That number could easily be plugged by doing the unthinkable – raising the gas tax. A 12-cent increase in the gas tax over two years, indexed over time with inflation, would actually raise $164 billion over the next decade – more than enough to plug the hole, according to a by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

That proposal has gained some traction, but faces opposition from anti-tax groups and a skeptical public.

Wyden is to this ongoing problem of highway funding. The test of his political leadership could be finding a solution that is palatable on a national stage.