Senate appropriators Wednesday approved a draft transportation spending bill that includes money to cover the $4 billion shortfall in the federal Highway Trust Fund, rejecting a House decision not to address the issue.

Washington Democrat Patty Murray, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriation’s Transportation, Housing and Urban Development subcommittee, said the panel’s draft spending bill would include a provision to transfer $8 billion from the general fund to the trust fund.

The panel approved the draft by voice vote.

Murray will likely try to convince Senate leaders to include the transfer in a continuing resolution should the transportation spending bill not get done this fiscal year.

Murray said she and ranking Republican Christopher S. Bond of Missouri agreed to fix the problem in their fiscal 2009 spending bill after numerous other failed attempts to shore up the trust fund, most recently by adding it to Federal Aviation Administration authorization legislation.

“We need to recognize that the highway trust fund needs to be funded in order to maintain our highways, the lifeline of our economy,” Bond said.

The approach is in stark contrast to what House lawmakers said just a few weeks ago.

At a June 20 markup, Murray’s counterpart, John W. Olver, D-Mass., said his committee would not address the shortfall in the panel’s appropriations bill.

Last summer, House Appropriations Chairman David R. Obey of Wisconsin said anyone hoping that appropriators will dip into the Treasury to make up the difference will be disappointed.

“I’ve got news for you — it ain’t gonna happen,” Obey said.

The trust fund is filled from taxes collected on gasoline, which may decrease as people drive less due to higher fuel prices. There has been a consensus that the shortfall needs to be dealt with, but no one has agreed on an approach.