[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11490-11491]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          RAISING THE GAS TAX

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, we begin an unusual week here on Capitol 
Hill, although unusual is sort of the new usual in Washington, D.C.
  The Senate begins deliberations on an 8-year Republican mission to 
repeal the Affordable Care Act, and they don't fully know what it is 
exactly they are voting on.
  There is uncertainty in the House over both the budget and 
appropriations, but, you know, there is an opportunity for Congress to 
take a step back, to do something that will make a huge difference for 
everybody from coast to coast, something that can bring together a wide 
coalition of support and meet unmet needs.

[[Page 11491]]



                              {time}  1015

  I am talking about addressing the unmet infrastructure needs for a 
country that is falling apart as we fall behind.
  We haven't raised the gas tax in 24 years. And in the course of that 
24 years, we have watched the value of the Federal gas tax actually 
erode 40 percent, due to inflation and increased fuel efficiency, while 
our needs continue to go up each and every year.
  Congress has put together a series of stopgap measures--gimmicks here 
and there--which have not adequately met those needs, and they have 
actually increased the budget deficit.
  I think back to Ronald Reagan making his Thanksgiving Day speech in 
November of 1982, when he called on Congress to come back from their 
recess and more than double the gas tax because, he pointed out, it 
would put people to work and improve road conditions that were actually 
damaging people's cars more than what modest increase they would pay. 
Well, Congress did it, and we were better off as a result. I think each 
of us would do well to look back at that speech that Ronald Reagan 
gave, calling on Congress to step up and do its part.
  The States are not sitting back. Since over the last 5 years, more 
than half of the individual States have gone ahead and raised their 
transportation funding. So far in 2017 alone, California, Indiana, 
Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina raised 
the gas tax. In fact, South Carolina raised the gas tax by overriding a 
Republican Governor's veto.
  There are opportunities here for us to be able to step forward and 
build on this vast coalition. It really isn't a profile in courage to 
support legislation that is endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 
the AFL-CIO, contractors, a variety of labor unions, road builders, 
engineers, trucking companies, and AAA. The widest coalition of people 
supporting any major issue before us deals with increasing the fuel 
tax.
  And it is interesting, for those who are worried that maybe there is 
some political downturn, despite the fact that the States have been 
able to summon the courage. The American Road and Transportation 
Builders Association did an extensive survey about who were those 
intrepid legislators that voted to raise the gas tax since 2012. What 
they found is that those legislators who had the courage and the vision 
to do what was right for their States were reelected by an over 90 
percent rate.
  But this shouldn't be about elections. It should be about what is 
right for the American people. Stepping up, meeting our obligations, so 
that the Federal Government is a full partner, working with State and 
local governments, working with the private sector, to be able to meet 
the over $1.1 trillion of critical transportation needs between now and 
2025 ought to be the order of business.
  I would hope that my friends in Republican leadership would allow us 
to have just 1 week of hearings on this issue so that we can hear from 
the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the president of the 
AFL-CIO, the truckers, AAA, Republican legislators of principle, people 
across the country who talk about the need to rebuild and renew 
America, make our communities more livable, our families safer, 
healthier, and more economically secure.

                          ____________________