Senators Avoid EV, Hybrid Fees in Their Version of Budget Bill
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The U.S. Senate’s tax-writing panel in June put its official stamp on the chamber’s upcoming budget bill, which will notably not include a fee on electric and hybrid vehicles.
The Finance Committee’s contribution to President Donald Trump’s tax and budget bill is a response to a House-passed version meant to reflect Trump’s domestic agenda.
Specific to transportation, the committee, led by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), did not include a proposal to charge $250 for every electric vehicle and $100 for every hybrid vehicle upon registration. The House-passed version included the fee provisions, which are intended to boost the Highway Trust Fund account. The fund, money from which pays for road and bridge repairs, is facing insolvency due to dwindling revenue from gas and diesel taxes.
With the provision not reflected in the Senate version, the budget bill’s final version is unlikely to include the EV and hybrid fees, senior lawmakers have suggested. Still, Crapo touted his panel’s contribution to the massive tax and budget package, which Trump is asking lawmakers to deliver to his desk by July 4.
“This bill prevents an over $4 trillion tax hike and makes the successful 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent, enabling families and businesses to save and plan for the future,” Crapo said June 16. “It delivers additional tax relief to middle-class families still recovering from record inflation under the Biden administration. It powers the economy by permanently extending critical pro-growth provisions and introduces new incentives for domestic investment, providing certainty for American job creators to spur domestic economic activity and invest in their workers.”
“This bill prevents an over $4 trillion tax hike and makes the successful 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent, enabling families and businesses to save and plan for the future,” saysSen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). (Al Drago/Bloomberg News)
Earlier, Senate transportation committees revealed their contributions to the budget measure.
The Environment and Public Works panel proposed creation of an opt-in fee system at the Council on Environmental Quality designed to expedite environmental reviews. The EPW measure also would seek to undo Biden-era emissions standards aimed at expanding access to electric vehicles.
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The Commerce Committee is taking aim at reducing funds for severe weather-resilient projects while enhancing funding for air traffic control communications and infrastructure. “Senate Republicans are fixing the aging air traffic control system, rebuilding the Coast Guard to secure our maritime border against deadly drugs and illegal immigration, ensuring the U.S. — not China — gets to Mars and gets back to the moon first, and turbocharging economic activity with expanded commercial access to spectrum,” Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said.
Senate Republican leaders insist their goal is to advance the bill through the legislative reconciliation process by the congressional July Fourth recess. The measure’s final version requires approval in each chamber. Under the reconciliation process, simple majorities are all that is needed for passage.
The House and Senate versions both extend the Trump-era 2017 tax cuts. Both versions also boost border security, military readiness, domestic energy initiatives and supply chain connectivity.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) says, “Senate Republicans would pay for those new corporate tax breaks by making even deeper cuts to Medicaid, slashing funding for rural hospitals and other essential health care providers and throwing cash-strapped states off a funding cliff.” (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News)
Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, remain united in their opposition to the GOP-led mega-budget package. “The biggest winners here are wealthy corporations who would get hundreds of billions of dollars in additional tax breaks on top of what they got in the House Republican bill,” Finance Committee ranking member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said June 17. “Senate Republicans would pay for those new corporate tax breaks by making even deeper cuts to Medicaid, slashing funding for rural hospitals and other essential health care providers and throwing cash-strapped states off a funding cliff.” He added, “If those Medicaid cuts weren’t damaging enough, this bill would endanger hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs and take food out of the mouths of millions of children.”
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