By Nandita Bose and Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Monday he will reduce the 18-cent federal gas tax for a yet to be determined period as U.S. fuel prices shoot higher due to the Iran war.
Waiving the tax requires Congress, currently controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, to pass legislation.
“Yeah, I’m going to reduce,” Trump told reporters on whether he would suspend the tax. Asked how long he would suspend the tax, Trump said in the Oval Office, “till it’s appropriate.”
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said on X that he is introducing legislation on Monday to suspend the gas tax.
In March, some Democrats including Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona first proposed suspending the tax, which generates about $2.5 billion per month in road funding, until October. Since 2008, more than $275 billion – including $118 billion from the 2021 infrastructure law – has been shifted from the general fund to pay for road repairs.
Trump told CBS earlier on Monday that a bailout plan for airlines, which are struggling with surging jet fuel costs, had not “really been presented” and that “the airlines are doing not badly.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Sunday told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that the Trump administration was open to suspending the federal gas tax.
U.S. states also tax gasoline, with Indiana, Kentucky and Georgia moving to make cuts to give consumers some relief at the pump.
Gas prices have risen since the war in Iran began on February 28, with one gallon in the U.S. averaging $4.52 as of Monday, the highest since 2022, when the average peaked at $5.01 a gallon, according to AAA motor club.
Rising fuel costs, which stand to also boost the price of groceries and other goods, are a vulnerability for Trump and his fellow Republicans who are trying to hold control of Congress in the midterm elections in November. Trump said he knows the tax is only a small percentage of the overall cost of gasoline for consumers, “but it’s still money.”
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Nandita Bose; additional reporting by Katharine Jackson and David Shepardson; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Ryan Patrick Jones, Bill Berkrot and Nick Zieminski)
