[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 62 (Tuesday, May 7, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4782-S4783]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REPEAL THE GASOLINE TAX

  Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, there is a growing concern in our country 
about the rise of fuel prices, the rise of gasoline prices. Obviously, 
the President shares this concern. We have committee hearings underway. 
We have studies. We have investigations.
  We all know that there is only one thing we can do that is going to 
bring down gasoline prices immediately. In fact, we have the capacity, 
by acting now, to bring down the cost of filling up the gas tank on 
your car, on your van, on your truck. We can save you about $1 a fill-
up by repealing the 4.3-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline that was adopted 
in 1993.
  That gasoline tax increase did not go to build new highways; it went 
to general revenue. What we would like to do today is repeal that 
gasoline tax. We would like to repeal that tax on highway gasoline, on 
highway diesel fuel, on railroad diesel fuel, on inland waterway diesel 
fuel, on aviation gasoline, on noncommercial jet fuel, and on 
commercial jet fuel. We would like to repeal that 4.3-cent-a-gallon tax 
on each of those fuels, do it today and have that repeal in effect 
until the end of the year, giving us an opportunity to write a budget 
and to institute a permanent repeal as part of that new budget.

[[Page S4783]]

  It would be our goal today to pay for this loss of revenue by cutting 
the overhead and travel budget of the Energy Department and by selling 
a very small part of the spectrum, something that the President has 
supported at a level of $38 billion of sales, something that the 
Congress is on record in favor of. On a $19 billion sale, we would have 
roughly a $2 billion sale as part of this package.
  If you want to bring down the price of gasoline at the pump, if you 
want, by Friday morning, to have every filling station in America going 
out, opening for business, bringing down their posted price by 4.3 
cents a gallon, saving every motorist in America about $1 when they 
fill up their tank, there is only one thing we can do, and that is 
repeal this tax on gasoline.
  I hope we can do it today. I hope the House can act quickly, that the 
President will sign it, that we can grant relief. What a great thing it 
would be to do it on tax freedom day, when the average American family 
has worked from January 1 until today just to pay taxes.
  For the first time this year, they are working for themselves. Today 
would be an excellent day to repeal this tax, to give relief to 
motorists and, in the process, let working families keep more of what 
they earn.
  Mr. DOLE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gregg). The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I particularly thank the Senator from Texas, 
who first raised this issue several weeks ago, and I thank him for his 
leadership. I think it would be an excellent day, since today is tax 
freedom day. Hopefully, we can reach an agreement here.
  I think repeal of the gas tax will pass. The Senator from Texas has 
outlined how we pay for it--the spectrum sales, which is about $2.5 
billion in savings, and the Energy Department, about $800 million over 
the next 7 years. This would repeal it through the end of this year, 
and the Budget Committee would then come forth with repeal thereafter.
  I also add that, of course, it is tax freedom day, and a lot of 
people have noted that. I am not certain how many taxpayers have 
thought about it, but, as the Senator from Texas pointed out, tomorrow 
they are sort of on their own. For the first 128 days, they have been 
working for the local, State, and Federal Government, just to pay their 
taxes. That is on the average.
  Since President Clinton came on board, we have added 1 week to that 
because of the big, big tax increase in 1993 of $265 billion to $268 
billion. So it has already been extended. You have to work an extra 
week, after 3 years of President Clinton, to get to tax freedom day.
  Some would say, well, 4.3 cents is not really worth it. I think that, 
from the standpoint of sending a signal to the American people, we are 
serious about tax reduction, serious about tax freedom day. It is not 
just a day to make an appearance somewhere or make a statement on the 
Senate floor. We are serious about it.
  As the Senator from Texas pointed out, this 4.3 cents is not going 
for highways, or bridges, or mass transit, or construction of any kind. 
It is going for deficit reduction. I have voted for tax increases in 
the past, as has been pointed out by my colleagues on the other side, 
to build highways and bridges. That is what we thought the fuel taxes 
were all about.
  In 1990, for a very short period of time, we had to divide a 5-cent 
tax increase between the deficit and the trust fund so that we could 
get our colleagues on the other side to go along with the budget 
agreement of 1990. That would have expired at the end of 5 years. But 
before that expiration date occurred, the big tax bill of 1993 took 
that 5 cents and put it all in the trust fund, but then added 4.3 cents 
to deficit reduction. Therein lies the problem of today. We have a 
permanent 4.3 cents gas tax for deficit reduction.

  The people who build highways, who travel our highways, and use mass 
transit can understand if you are doing it to make the highway safer, 
for better transportation, better highways, and mass transit, but not 
deficit reduction. So we need to cut taxes for the average family. We 
also need to go back and look at some of the things that were vetoed 
last year, such as the $500-per-child tax credit, the expanded IRA's, 
tax relief for education expenses, estate tax relief for family 
businesses, marriage penalty relief, and a whole host of things we 
think are good incentives and should be adopted and would create jobs 
and opportunities.
  American families--at least the ones I visit with--think they are 
paying enough in taxes. As I said, they are paying a lot more because 
of the legislation that was passed in 1993, without a Republican vote 
in the House or the Senate.
  So today I am introducing, along with Senator Gramm, and others, 
legislation repealing the 1993 gas tax hike. I am going to ask in a 
moment unanimous consent to bring the gas tax repeal to a vote on the 
taxpayer bill of rights. The taxpayer bill of rights 2 is pending at 
the desk. We can bring that up, offer an amendment, have 30 minutes of 
debate, and vote on it. It would then go to the House, and we will have 
repealed the 4.3-cent gas tax.
  I hope we can have an agreement on this. It seems to me that we know 
it is going to pass. It is going to happen one of these days. It may as 
well happen today, as the Senator from Texas pointed out, on tax 
freedom day. So this would be a good day to indicate that we are 
serious about it.
  There is some question as to whether the repeal would result in lower 
gas prices for consumers. On Friday, I was in Virginia at an Exxon 
station with Senator Warner, Congressman Tom Davis, and others, and we 
were assured by the owner of the station--in fact, he is the owner of 
several Exxon stations--that, obviously, it was their intent to pass 
the 4.3 cents on to consumers. That is how they do business. They know 
their customers, and the customers are going to know whether or not it 
has been passed on to them.
  Our amendment is drafted to ensure that this happens by providing an 
immediate tax cut against other applicable excise taxes. We also 
require that the Departments of Justice, Treasury, and Energy study 
fuel prices in June, July, and August 1996, to determine whether the 
gas tax repeal is passed through to consumers. Those Departments would 
be required to report back to Congress by September 30.

  We also propose a sense of the Congress that the benefits of the gas 
tax repeal be made immediately available to consumers. So we have 
listened to the concerns expressed by our colleagues. We had the same 
concerns. We believe the benefits will go to the consumers. Just to 
make certain and erase any doubt or skepticism, we have added these 
provisions.
  Repealing the 1993 gas tax will cut driving costs for families who 
drive to work, to school, to worship, or on vacation. There are many 
reasons for the skyrocketing gas prices. Maybe they will go up. We are 
not suggesting that the repeal of the gas tax is going to put the halt 
to rising gas prices, but they will be at least 4.3 cents less. It is 
one way of cut driving costs for American families and businesses. I 
think it is something we should do, something we will do. Also, we 
would like to scrap--and at the appropriate time we will talk about it, 
later this year--the current tax system and replace it with a flatter, 
fairer, and simpler system that no longer discourages savings and 
investment, economic growth, and job creation.
  So I urge my colleagues not to object, so we can get on with the work 
of debating this. It should not take long. It is a fairly clear-cut 
issue at stake. I will now propound the unanimous-consent request, and 
I understand the distinguished Democratic leader may have some request 
of his own. I propound this request.

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