President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on states and Congress Wednesday to declare a federal and state gas tax holiday, as the price of a gallon of gas is averaging about $5 nationwide. Biden wants Congress to suspend the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax for 90 days, or “through the busy summer season.”
“It’s important because we use it for the Highway Trust Fund to keep our highways going, but what I’m proposing is suspending the federal gas tax without affecting the Highway Trust Fund, and here’s how we do that,” said Biden. “With revenues up this year and deficits down over $1.6 trillion this year alone, we’ll still be able to fix our highways and bring down prices of gas.”
Biden said oil companies should pass the tax savings onto consumers and also said they should increase production and refining capacity, activities his administration has made unlikely through increased regulation. He also called on states to suspend their state gas taxes, which would impact states in varying ways: Washington State has a 49-cent per gallon gas tax that it uses to fund highway maintenance, while Alaska’s tax on gas is 8 cents. The average state gas tax is 30 cents per gallon.
If achieved, the gas tax holiday would save average motorist $8.59 for the 90-day period. For example, it would reduce the cost of a 15-gallon fill-up in Alaska from $81 to $78.41; the savings is $2.59.
Biden has been in office for 518 days; gasoline is about $3 more per gallon than it was when was sworn in.
