WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signaled his openness to a 25-cent fuel tax increase to help pay for his infrastructure proposal.
Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware said Trump told lawmakers in a White House meeting that he would be willing to provide leadership on such an increase.
“To my surprise, President Trump, today in our meeting, offered his support for raising the gas and diesel tax by 25 cents a gallon and dedicating that money to improve our roads, highways, and bridges,” Carper, a Democrat who has advocated for the increase, said in a statement.
He said the president “came back to the idea of a 25 cent increase several times throughout the meeting.”
Trump made the comments, first reported by Axios, in a meeting with members of the House and Senate to discuss his plan to rebuild and restore the nation’s roads, bridges and ports. The White House unveiled a proposal Monday to use a $200 billion federal investment to leverage more than $1 trillion in public and private funding to pay for the upgrades.
The White House proposal is silent on what the administration would do about the Highway Trust Fund, which finances most highway and transit projects through the fuel taxes. The trust fund is forecast to go broke in 2021.
Some lawmakers and prominent groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have called for a 25-cent, phased-in increase in the federal gas tax to bolster the nation’s highway trust fund.
