President Trump said he is open to raising federal fuel taxes on gasoline and diesel to fund his infrastructure plans and will consider the proposal in negotiations with Congress over his tax plan.
“It’s something that I would certainly consider,” Trump told Bloomberg News in an interview Monday. He added that the trucking industry would support the fuel tax increase “if we earmarked money toward the highways.”
The federal per-gallon tax of 18 cents for gasoline and 24 cents for diesel fuel has not been increased for nearly 25 years. The fees are put into the Highway Trust Fund and then matched with state funds to help maintain the U.S. road system.
Trump’s tax plan, released last week, proposed to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent. In the interview, the president said “everything is a starting point,” explaining that he is willing to lose some portions of the tax plan’s provisions to include others.
