As gas prices continue to climb, President Donald Trump’s call to suspend the gas tax landed with some skepticism on Capitol Hill.
Trump told reporters that he wanted to suspend the gas tax “’til it’s appropriate.” This comes as fuel prices have skyrocketed amid his war with Iran, which caused the regime to close off the Strait of Hormuz and, consequently, a fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced legislation to suspend the gas tax.
“I just don’t know why Republicans are suddenly for higher taxes. I thought Republicans were all about cutting taxes,” Hawley told The Independent.
On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest numbers showing that the price of gasoline increased by 5.4 percent in April and that it rose by 28.4 percent in the past 12 months.
According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of gas is $4.50, up from an average of $2.89 at the beginning of February before Trump launched a war with Iran without authorization from Congress.
“So I would hope, especially now, people are in need of relief, this would go straight to their pocketbooks,” Hawley told The Independent.
But some Republicans fear that a gas tax suspension might endanger money used to pay for roads and highways. The gas tax is set to 18.4 cents a gallon and it funds the Highway Trust Fund.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said he wanted to know the nature of such a holiday.
“I think there’s a difference between a permanent and a temporary suspension,” he told The Independent. “It may make sense temporarily, but we’re going to have to pay for the roads and highways, and that’s money that goes in the Highway Trust Fund. So I’d like to hear the greater context.”
Cornyn is locked in a tight runoff election against Texas’s MAGA Attorney General Ken Paxton for a runoff election later this month to determine who will face Democratic nominee James Talarico.
But Talarico came out in support of a gas tax holiday.
“I applaud President Trump’s support for a federal gas tax suspension,” Talarico said in a statement. “Lowering prices at the pump should be a bipartisan commitment. I urge Senator Cornyn to drop his opposition to suspending the gas tax. He should join President Trump and me in supporting this critical tax relief for Texans.”
And Graham Platner, the oyster farmer who is the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, announced his support for a plan to eliminate the gas and diesel tax.
“Relying on fossil fuels to fund basic infrastructure does not make sense if we want to reduce fossil fuels used in transportation,” Platner said.
Democrats have only 47 Senate seats and hope that gas prices can be a selling point during the 2026 midterm election as they seek to flip seats not only in Maine and Texas, but also in North Carolina, Alaska, Iowa and Ohio.
But Democrats in the Senate say the easiest way to end the pain at the gas pump is to end the war in Iran.
“My instant thoughts are that the easiest way to lower gas prices is to end the war in Iran, and that’s what he should do,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told The Independent.
Sen. Ron Wyden, a former chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, had a more straightforward answer.
“Look, I’m willing to look at any approach that will lower gas prices, but the reality is, the best way to lower gas prices is end this damn war, because that’s the heart of the problem,” he said
But there is little chance of Congress reining in the president’s war in Iran. Consistently, Senate Democrats have brought forward War Powers Act resolutions, which would require a withdrawal of troops unless Congress declared war or authorized the use of military force.
