Legislation Would Let States Keep Federal Fuel Taxes
A bill has been introduced in the House and Senate that would dramatically reduce federal diesel and gasoline taxes and let the states keep most revenue from the two levies rather than sending the revenue to the Highway Trust Fund.
The diesel tax would be reduced to 5 cents a gallon from 24.4 cents and the gasoline tax to 3.7 cents from 18.4 cents.
Sens. Mike Lee (R-Idaho) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced the Transportation Empowerment Act in the Senate on Nov. 14. Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) is the House sponsor.
The measure would “transfer almost all authority over federal highway and transit programs to the states over a five-year period” during which the states would receive block grants that come with “vastly fewer federal strings attached,” the sponsors said.
“Under the Transportation Empowerment Act, Americans would no longer have to send significant gas-tax revenue to Washington, where sticky-fingered politicians, bureaucrats, and lobbyists take their cut before sending it back with strings attached,” Lee said in a joint statement.
Currently, fuel tax revenue supports the Highway Trust Fund, which sends money back to the states for building and maintaining the nation’s highway system.
The sponsors said the federal role in highway transportation has “usurped the role of the states” by taxing fuel used there and then distributing the revenue to states based on the federal government’s perception of what is best for the states.
