Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ruled out raising the gas tax as a way to pay for the Highway Trust Fund, which will run out of money July 31.
“Let me just say we’re not going to raise the gas tax. We’re not going to raise the gas tax,” McConnell said. “The environment committee has come out with a six-year bill … but there is considerable skepticism that you could pay for a bill of a six-year duration.”
McConnell (R-Ky.) also said he did not support repatriation, a bipartisan measure, as a way to mend crumbling highways, bridges and public transportation and said it would be too difficult to take on something so ambitious with just three weeks before the deadline.
Congress needs approximately $11 billion to get through the end of 2015, with some Republicans hoping a bill will go further, at least through the 2016 elections so they don’t have to deal with highway funding extension votes.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) supported McConnell’s plan to keep moving forward on the highway bill but raised strong objections to the idea of a short-term highway extension, saying it would be “disgusting and very offensive.”
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also criticized for ruling out a plan to overhaul various corporate taxes as way to pay for U.S. infrastructure, without presenting an alternative plan.
