{"id":39531,"date":"2022-07-12T16:26:11","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T22:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-delegation-is-split-on-bidens-federal-gas-tax-pause\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:50:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:50:33","slug":"colorado-delegation-is-split-on-bidens-federal-gas-tax-pause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-delegation-is-split-on-bidens-federal-gas-tax-pause\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado delegation is split on Biden\u2019s federal gas tax pause"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Current
Current fuel prices in Summit County on June 15, 2022. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Four of the six Democrats in Colorado\u2019s congressional delegation support President Joe Biden\u2019s call for a three-month federal gas tax pause, with a fifth \u2013 U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette \u2013 saying she\u2019s open, but not committed to the idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s looking at it now,\u201d said DeGette\u2019s spokesman, Ryan Brown. \u201cShe strongly supports taking steps to bring down these record-high gas prices as soon as possible, she just needs to be convinced that a temporary pause of the gas tax will actually lead to lower prices at the pump and not just further pad big oil\u2019s bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely the federal gas tax pause will come to fruition, with congressional Democrats uneasy about the proposal. Congress would have to act to suspend the tax, but many federal lawmakers, including some Democrats, have expressed reservations about whether gas prices would actually be reduced by the pause. Even many economists view the idea of a gas tax holiday with skepticism.<\/p>\n

The average cost of a gallon of regular gas in Colorado was $4.88 on Thursday, according to AAA.<\/p>\n

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered a noncommittal response to Biden\u2019s proposal, saying she would look to see if there was support for it in Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will see where the consensus lies on a path forward for the president\u2019s proposal in the House and the Senate,\u201d the California Democrat said.<\/p>\n

Unlikely to pass a gas tax holiday through the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said last week that Democrats will focus instead on their bill to crack down on oil companies \u201cmanipulating the market\u201d for higher prices and profits. \u201cWe\u2019re going to focus on that issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The New York Times called the proposal the \u201clatest sign of the desperation in the White House to find even modest steps to address an issue that is eating away at the president\u2019s support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t reduce all the pain but it will be a big help,\u201d Biden said. \u201cI\u2019m doing my part. I want Congress, states and industry to do their part as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tax is roughly 18 cents per gallon of gasoline and 24 cents per gallon of diesel.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the other Democrats in Colorado\u2019s congressional delegation said:<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly half of my constituents live paycheck to paycheck,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Centennial Democrat. \u201cThey can\u2019t afford to bear the cost of big oil\u2019s stock buybacks and shareholder payouts. Suspending the federal gas tax is the right move to deliver relief to Americans who have been paying for this price gouging.\u201d\u201cHigh prices at the gas pump are hurting Coloradans, and we must do everything we can to provide them relief,\u201d U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet said. \u201cCongress should act swiftly to suspend the federal gas tax temporarily to lower costs for working families and take steps to hold large oil companies accountable to ensure these savings reach consumers.\u201d\u201cSen. (John) Hickenlooper supports suspending the gas tax,\u201d said his spokeswoman, Alyssa Roberts. \u201cIt\u2019s not everything, but we have to do anything we can to lower costs for Americans.\u201dU.S. Rep. Joe Neguse\u2019s office simply said that the congressman from Lafayette supports the proposal.<\/div>\n

U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, an Arvada Democrat who is in his final months in Congress before he retires from politics, opposes the idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate President Biden\u2019s desire to take action for hard working families in the middle but I am concerned the call to temporarily suspend the federal gas tax will not have the intended result \u2014 and that\u2019s to ease the pain in a significant way directly for consumers,\u201d Perlmutter said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

Biden administration officials said the $10 billion cost of the gas tax holiday would be paid for and the Highway Trust Fund, which finances most federal highway and transit projects, would be kept whole, even though the gas taxes make up a substantial source of revenue for the fund. The officials did not specify any new revenue sources.<\/p>\n

The president has also called on energy companies to accept lower profit margins to increase oil production and refining capacity for gasoline.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun asked all three Republicans in Colorado\u2019s congressional delegation about the proposal. The Sun only heard back from U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, whose spokesman said the Garfield County congresswoman opposes the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we unleashed American energy, we could reduce the price of gas by dollars on the gallon like we did with President Trump,\u201d Boebert said in a statement. \u201cThe American people don\u2019t want gas prices to go down by 18 cents, they want it to go down by two to three dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden has also called on states to pause their gas taxes. In Colorado, the tax is 22 cents per gallon of gasoline. Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, said he supports the idea of a state gas tax pause, but lawmakers, who would likely have to gather for a special legislative session, have signaled they are not on board.<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

the six Democrats in Colorado\u2019s congressional delegation back the idea, while the remaining two are skeptical<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39531"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84360,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39531\/revisions\/84360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39531"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}