GOP Sen. John Thune will not take a hike in the gas tax off the list of possible ways to finance President Donald Trump’s infrastructure bill, The Hill reports.
Thune’s stance runs counter to the opinion of congressional Republicans at large. The White House is more in line with Thune, considering the hike to pay for rebuilding and restoring America’s vast system of roads and bridges.
“I’m not ruling out anything at this point,” Thune, who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said Tuesday, according to The Hill. “I think we need to keep our options open in terms of how we get that done.”
White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohen floated the idea in a meeting with members of Congress last week on the Trump administration’s infrastructure plan. Cohen proposed increasing the 18.4 cent gas tax by another 7 cents. The gas tax has not been changed since 1993, according to The Washington Post.
“Probably whatever we end up being able to do in Washington, it’s going to take administration leadership to get out there and push for it,” a GOP House staffer told WaPo.
Trump campaigned on a promise to raise $1 trillion in new infrastructure spending through private investment.
However, Trump said in April that he was open to the gas tax “if we earmarked money toward the highways,” Bloomberg reports.
The U.S. highway system, most of which was built after World War II, is at the end of its lifespan, according to WaPo.
“It’s a good sign that the administration is still focused on infrastructure,” another GOP staffer told WaPo. “I think that’s the takeaway, and not so much anything that was discussed at any particular meeting.”
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