JOAN LOWY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two senators are proposing to raise federal gasoline and diesel taxes for the first time in more than two decades as Congress struggles with how to pay for highway and transit programs.

Senators Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, and Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, pitched their plan Wednesday as a bipartisan solution to replenish the federal Highway Trust Fund. That fund is forecast to go broke in late August.

The plan would raise the 18.4 cents a gallon federal gas tax and 24.4 cents a gallon diesel tax by 12 cents each over the next two years, and then index the taxes to keep pace with inflation.

The plan calls for offsetting the tax increases with other taxes cuts, possibly including extending federal tax breaks that expired this year.