DALLAS -- An Oregon Democrat in the House has filed legislation that would almost double the federal tax on gasoline and diesel fuel to generate $210 billion of new revenue over 10 years for roads, bridges, and transit.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer's Update, Promote, and Develop America's Transportation Essentials (UPDATE) Act, H.R. 680, would phase an the additional 15 cents per gallon levy on both fuels with annual 5-cent increases over three years from the current 18.4 cents per gallon tax on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel.
The measure would allow Congress to pass a fully funded six-year transportation bill for the first time since 1997, Blumenauer said Wednesday at a news conference announcing the re-introduced legislation. He filed a similar bill in December 2013 that never received committee consideration.
"Congress hasn't dealt seriously with the funding issue for over 20 years and it's time to act," Blumenauer said. "The gas tax used to be an efficient road user fee, but with inflation and increased fuel efficiency, especially for some types of vehicles, there is no longer a good relationship between what road users pay and how much they benefit."
The proposed legislation would avoid a drop in purchasing power by linking the fuel tax rate to inflation, he said.
"The average motorist is paying about half as much per mile as they did in 1993," Blumenauer said.
Congress has transferred $65 billion of general fund revenue to the HTF since 2008 to keep it solvent, Blumenauer said.
Blumenauer was joined at the news conference by representatives from groups and businesses that support the gasoline tax increase, including the AFL-CIO, American Automobile Association, American Society of Civil Engineers, and American Trucking Associations.
Laura Lane, global public affairs president for UPS, said Blumenauer's proposed tax increases would be a much needed boost for surface transportation funding.
"Increasing the federal motor fuels tax is a long-overdue proposal to provide the dedicated funding needed to maintain our highways, intermodal connections, and other related infrastructure projects," Lane said.
Blumenauer also filed a companion bill, H.R. 679, to create a pilot program to determine if a fee on vehicle miles traveled could replace collections from the federal gasoline and diesel taxes.
Revenue from the federal tax on gasoline and diesel is the main support of the Highway Trust Fund. The HTF is the source of almost all federal grants to states and local governments for highway and transit construction and maintenance projects.
President Obama's proposed $478 billion, six-year transportation bill would keep the fuel taxes at current levels by raising $238 billion of new revenue through a one-time 14% transition tax on corporate offshore earnings.
James Corliss, director of the Transportation for America advocacy group, said he is encouraged by the growing sense of urgency in Washington for bolstering the HTF.
However, Corliss said he doubts that a multiyear transportation bill can be passed before the current $11 billion HTF solvency patch expires in May. There have been 32 such funding extensions in the last six years, he said.
"Congress and the administration will have their work cut out for them to get a complicated deal done and avoid yet another short-term extension beyond May 31," Corliss said.
The latest projections by the Congressional Budget Office estimates the fuel taxes will bring in $39 billion in fiscal 2015 and $40 billion a year from 2016 through 2023. Based on current spending, the CBO said, expenditures will outpace revenues by $13 billion in fiscal 2016, $14 billion in 2017 and 2018, and $15 billion in fiscal 2021.
