[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18685]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           UPDATE THE GAS TAX

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, last week I was proud to stand with 
representatives of the U.S. Chamber, the AFL-CIO, contractors, local 
government, transit, truckers, AAA, engineers, and environmentalists, 
all supporting my legislation, H.R. 3636, to update the gas tax.
  It inspired the predictable firestorm. There was a rant from a 
shouting head on Fox who thought not only did we not need 
transportation money, but thought that the previous money had somehow 
disappeared. Even the people who supported the gas tax said it was a 
horrible idea, like the article in Slate saying it is the best least-
popular idea in politics. It provoked a torrent of reaction--some 
laudatory, some inflammatory. But it boiled down to basically three 
major points:
  Where did this idea come from?
  Well, it came from my decades of work in transportation, studying, 
listening to people from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon; North 
Carolina to Seattle to California. It was 10 years of experience that I 
had directing the transportation functions at the city of Portland as 
the Commissioner of Public Works where I saw firsthand the impact of 
poor and declining infrastructure. It is every single major independent 
study that says we need more money for transportation, not less, and it 
is a disaster that we are poised to slash transportation funding 
October 1 unless something happens.
  The question was asked: Isn't this unfair to lower-income Americans?
  Well, actually no. Lower-income Americans stand to benefit the most, 
people who are at the mercy of oil companies and foreign producers who 
don't know how much they will pay for gasoline next week, whether it is 
$3.35 as it was when I left Portland earlier this week, or $4.25. That 
is why they think the gas tax goes up every year, but it hasn't 
increased since 1993.
  Lower-income people are more transportation dependent. They work, in 
the main, by the hour. A traffic delay or deteriorating transit hits 
them harder because they have fewer choices. Terrible road conditions 
costs them money as it wastes fuel, it damages tires, and shakes their 
cars out of alignment. And lower-income people stand to benefit from 
the hundreds of thousands of family-wage jobs that will be created.
  Well, my favorite question is: If this is so unpopular and such a 
remote possibility, why even bother?
  Well, it is remote, but it is not impossible. Look at the user-fee 
increase that Ronald Reagan could sign, a nickel a gallon in 1982. We 
need leadership today if we are going to meet serious transportation 
challenges and help jump-start our economy. It may sound quaint, but I 
think leadership is not what you do when an idea is popular. Leadership 
is what you do when it is needed.
  I hope Congress will lead on transportation funding.

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