[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 57 (Tuesday, April 30, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4395-S4396]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REPEAL OF THE GAS TAX

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, let me also indicate something that it is 
not a part of this bill. It is still our intention to work out some 
procedure where we can take up repeal of the 4.3-cent gas tax. That is 
a matter of about $4.8 billion per year. It is our intention to repeal 
it until the end of the year and work on a permanent repeal during the 
budget process.
  We believe, with the skyrocketing prices of gasoline, jet fuel, and 
other fuels, that the most certain way to give consumers relief is to 
repeal the gas tax. That was part of the 1993 $265 billion tax increase 
President Clinton proposed, which did not receive a single Republican 
vote in the House or Senate. A permanent repeal of the gas tax is about 
$30 billion.
  So what we hope to propose, and hopefully on a bipartisan basis, at 
the appropriate time, is to go ahead and repeal the gas tax for the 
remainder of this year and try to get this done before the Memorial Day 
recess and deal with permanent repeal during the budget process. Of 
course, we would have to find offsets and pay for the repeal. It seems 
to me that we should do that as quickly as we can before the summer 
driving season starts in earnest.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I know the majority leader wants to get 
on with the measures. We have been in touch with Senator Simon and 
others. I understand Senator Simon is coming to the floor, and others. 
I will just mention that, just as the leader wants to get on to the 
issues in terms of the gas tax, many of us would still like to get on 
with the issues of the minimum wage increase. That, I think, is 
something we are all interested in. We are all interested in different 
matters, and that has been outstanding for some period of time.
  As I have indicated earlier, I hope that after we finish all of these 
amendments, while it is open for amendment, we would at least have the 
opportunity to offer it under the underlying bill. I know that the 
majority leader has not looked kindly on that in the past. But I wanted 
to at least make sure that we all understood at least what we were 
going to attempt to do.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, let me indicate to the Senator from 
Massachusetts that we have discussed not only minimum wage, but maybe 
even coupling these two items, joining the two, repeal of the gas tax 
and maybe the minimum wage, some increase. We talked about a lot of 
different options and we have not reached a decision. I can assure the 
Senator that he will be one of the first to know once we have reached a 
resolution.
  Mr. BREAUX addressed the Chair.

[[Page S4396]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.

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