Biden's infrastructure program will be costly and finding a way to pay for it is keeping Congress busy with proposals. One such proposal—a vehicle miles traveled for commercial trucks
Funding Infrastructure Investment: A Trucking Tax?
Congress is looking for ways to fund President Biden's infrastructure program. The current estimate is a $3 trillion package, including a huge wish list of which infrastructure would be a major part. At the top of the list is a truck mileage tax that Democrats have been eyeing since 2017. The American Trucking Association is opposed to the idea and called truck-only fees "discriminatory." The trucking industry currently pays half the receipts into the Highway Trust Fund despite representing a small percentage of the vehicles on roads.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the infrastructure package should be "fiscally sound" and that the House was "examining tax credits, the tax code, the appropriations process and bonding authority among other ways to pay for new spending…" The Senate Finance Committee is also working on an international tax plan and a capital gains tax plan, but it is unclear whether those would fund infrastructure. The Chairman, Senator Ron Wyden, also noted interest in a carbon tax. Some Democrats are also eyeing deficit spending as a means of funding at least some of the plan.
