White House says gas tax won’t be part of infrastructure bill

The White House said Tuesday that raising the federal gasoline tax is not being considered as part of President Biden’s infrastructure package.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that a gas tax increase is not being discussed when asked about reports that Biden was considering a hike to pay for his $2.25 trillion package.

The president has proposed raising the corporate tax rate to pay for the package.

“I think that was a little bit of a garble, unintentional, but in yesterday’s meeting with members of Congress the president mentioned the gas tax only to make a point that even a significant increase in the gas tax, which some people have proposed would pay for only a fraction of the investment the country needs,” she said.

Psaki added that Biden believes raising the gas tax would be burdensome to Americans.

“Now, fundamentally, he does not believe that paying for this historic investment in rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure and creating millions of jobs should be on the backs of Americans,” she said.

“So he doesn’t believe that anyway, he’s proposed his own means of paying for it, but he was using it as an example of how it wouldn’t even make a sizable dent in paying for the package,” she added. 

Biden met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Monday to discuss infrastructure.

Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-N.J.), who was in the meeting, was cited in a tweet from a reporter saying Biden told lawmakers he is open to raising the gas tax, Reuters reported Monday.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said last month that neither a gas nor a mileage tax will be part of the conversation around the infrastructure bill.