GOP leaders reject idea for increase in gas tax
Trump reportedly floated suggestion for infrastructure.
President Donald Trump privately suggested massively increasing the gas tax to help fund a national infrastructure overhaul, but Republican leaders in Congress moved quickly to shut down the idea.
During a White House meeting with House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., several weeks ago, Trump mused about a gas tax increase to 50 cents per gallon, almost triple the current level, according to a person briefed on the exchange who requested anonymity to discuss White House deliberations.
A spokesperson for Shuster declined to comment on conversations with the White House, and the White House also declined to comment on the exchange.
Trump, cabinet members and GOP leaders also discussed the gas tax increase during joint meetings this weekend in Camp David. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who attended the meetings, would not reveal who raised the subject of raising the gas tax, but he said there was no ambiguity about how Congress planned to proceed.
“I’m sure it came up in some context because that’s what a lot of people have proposed at different times,” Cornyn said. “But I have complete confidence that we will not be raising the gas tax.”
The discussions underscore the difficulty Trump faces as he seeks to finance his 2016 campaign promise of a $1 trillion national infrastructure upgrade. Trump has said the infrastructure spending is central to his economic agenda and he believes the investments could create millions of new jobs across the country.
The White House is expected to release an infrastructure plan as soon as this month, but that plan is not expected to dictate how the projects would be paid for, in part to avoid controversy and preserve flexibility.
Though a potential source of significant revenue, increasing the federal gas tax has remained politically tenuous, as critics say it disproportionately harms poor Americans because they are less able to absorb such changes in fuel costs. Many Republicans have consistently opposed past proposals for increases, though some have said they are open to such a move.
The current federal fuel tax is 18.4-cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4-cents per gallon for diesel fuel. The gas tax was last raised in 1993 and it is not indexed to inflation. The tax mostly finances the Highway Trust Fund, with a very small portion going to the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund.
Because the federal government has not raised the gas tax in 24 years, a number of states have raised their own gasoline taxes to fund state projects.
White House officials said they still have not made a final determination as to whether they will pursue an increase in the gas tax, even though GOP leaders have made clear an increase will not have enough Republican support to become law.
A White House spokeswoman said the concept “hasn’t been taken off the table, as most previous administrations have done.”
“The goal is to move away from Washington dictating to states what they need to do, so I wouldn’t expect what the Administration rolls out to be that explicit in regard to gas tax, tolling,” or other ideas, the spokeswoman said.
Trump had made similar gas tax comments to Bloomberg during an April interview, saying an increase was “something that I would certainly consider ... if we earmarked money toward the highways.”
Several Republicans had echoed Trump’s openness to boost the gas tax.