The gas tax, as you know, has two components that are unique. The first is that the federal share is 100%. The second unique component is that the federal government has no role in project selection. Those two things would tend by their nature, especially the second, to not highlight gas tax funding as well as they should, because the way it's set up right now is that municipalities pick the project and report on it later.
On September 28th, 2011. See this statement in context.