WASHINGTON (AP) – The new Republican-controlled Congress is facing an old problem: where to find the money for highway and transit programs.
With gasoline prices at their lowest in years when the new Congress convened, there had been talk that it might be time to raise federal gas and diesel taxes, which haven’t budged in more than 20 years.
But already, GOP leaders are tamping down expectations, leaving no clear solution to the funding problem.
“I don’t know of any support for a gas tax increase in Congress,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the No. 2 Senate GOP leader, said flatly. Explained Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.: “They don’t want to vote for a tax increase.”
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, while not closing the door entirely, said there aren’t enough votes in the House for a gas tax increase. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman, was equally dampening.