Biden calls on Congress to suspend federal gas tax for 3 months

June 22, 2022 Amber Coakley US 0

FILE – High gas prices are shown as a pedestrian waits to cross the street in Los Angeles, June 16, 2022. President Joe Biden on June 22 will call on Congress to suspend the federal gasoline and diesel taxes for three months. It’s a move meant to ease financial pressures at the pump that also reveals the political toxicity of high gas prices in an election year.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

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UPDATED 1:31 PM PT – Wednesday, June 22 2022

President Joe Biden has asked Congress to suspend the federal gas tax for three months. In a speech from the White House Wednesday, he suggested the move. The Democrat also urged state and local governments to pause their fuel taxes as well. The federal tax is 18 cents per a gallon of gas and 24 cents for diesel.

.@POTUS: “By suspending the 18-cent federal gas tax for the next 90 days, we can bring down the price of gas and give families just a little bit of relief. I call on the companies to pass this along, every penny of this 18 cents reduction, to the consumers.” pic.twitter.com/Bbp5MW5ImC

— CSPAN (@cspan) June 22, 2022

The President also denied concerns that he’s not doing enough to increase domestic oil production. He claimed the US is on track to set a record oil production next year.

Biden also claimed a “gas tax holiday” would have no significant impact on funding for highways. He said suspending the gas tax is not going to have much of an impact on major road construction or repairs. His remarks comes as the Highway Trust Fund could potentially lose up to $20 billion in revenue if suspended.

Karine Jean-Pierre attempts to explain why Biden decided to propose his gas tax gimmick.

It did not go well. pic.twitter.com/TI88dsUGIW

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 22, 2022

Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) pointed out a gas tax holiday would relieve pain at the pump for Americans, but only temporarily. In an interview Tuesday, the senator stated relief from suspending the gas tax would only help for about 12 days with how gas prices are going up every week.

Scott also said the bigger conversation needs to be around restarting the Keystone XL pipeline to reintroduce confidence into the marketplace. He explained that without a predictable and consistent energy policy, Biden is just moving figures around and not making a long term impact.