{"id":404,"date":"2014-12-12T02:47:49","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T02:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quicktransportsolutions.com\/blog\/?p=404"},"modified":"2017-02-07T23:15:25","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T23:15:25","slug":"members-of-congress-call-for-fuel-tax-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicktransportsolutions.com\/blog\/members-of-congress-call-for-fuel-tax-hike\/","title":{"rendered":"Members of Congress Call for Fuel Tax Hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week two members of congress called for an increase on fuel taxes to help buttress the failing Highway Trust Fund. Tax policy creates strange bedfellows, as one is Oregon Democrat Earl Blumenauer and the other Wisconsin Republican Tom Petri.<\/p>\n

Rep. Blumenauer stated at the event that \u201cthe gas tax hasn\u2019t been increased since the beginning of the Clinton administration. Today, with inflation and increased fuel efficiency for vehicles, the average motorist is paying about half as much per mile as they did in 1993.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blumenauer goes on to state that there is a broad coalition of support for the increase from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National AFL-CIO, and other construction and trucking industry interest groups. The fuel hike in question would be included in the proposed UPDATE Act of 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Update Act<\/strong><\/p>\n

The house event held by Blumenauer and Petri happened to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Update, Promote and Develop America\u2019s Transportation Essentials (UPDATE) Act, a bill sponsored by Blemenauer that still languishes in a senate subcommittee.<\/p>\n

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Sponsored Links<\/p>\n

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The bill, originally drafted in 2013, specifically establishes a Road Usage Fee Pilot Program that would be used to study mileage-based fee systems nationwide. The bill also amends the tax code to implement the fuel tax increase.<\/p>\n

The updated version of the legislation being pushed at last week\u2019s event aims to phase in a 15 cent increase in the gas tax over a period of three years. It would also be pegged to inflation to prevent any runaway increases or decreases.<\/p>\n

When originally drafted ATA President and CEO Bill Graves supported the legislation in saying that \u201cthe additional investment in highway projects made possible by this new revenue will significantly improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of the trucking industry, to the benefit of all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to the dysfunction in Washington and mangled budgets, Congress has been adding to the General Fund deficit by transferring $50 billion of revenue to the Highway Trust Fund. To prevent insolvency, the fund would continually need almost $15 billion a year on top of what it gets from current gas tax receipts.<\/p>\n

The Raw Data<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an effort to support their push to get the bill passed, Blumenauer and Petri highlighted data that further backed up their legislation:<\/p>\n