Pelosi declines to endorse gas tax holiday
by Mike Lillis - 06/22/22 4:45 PM ET
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that Democratic leaders will gauge the party’s support for President Biden’s proposed gas tax holiday but stopped short of endorsing the idea, suggesting a rare break between the Speaker and her White House ally on an issue that’s threatening Democrats’ prospects at the polls in November.
“We will see where the consensus lies on a path forward for the President’s proposal in the House and the Senate, building on the strong bills to lower prices at the pump already passed by House Democrats including the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act and the Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act,“ Pelosi said in a statement.
The statement represents a tepid response from a Democratic leader who’s typically effusive in praising the president’s agenda, economic and otherwise. And it reflects the concerns of a number of Democrats on Capitol Hill that suspending the federal gas tax simply won’t show up as significant savings at the pump.
“The challenge on the gas tax is: Is the savings really going to flow to the consumer? Or is it going to be pocketed by the oil companies?” said Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “Those are legitimate questions.”
Pelosi’s legislative references were to a pair of bills designed to reduce prices gas prices, one by curbing price gouging and the other by promoting homegrown biofuels. Both have passed through the House in recent weeks, though they have little chance of moving through the Senate.
Democratic leaders had pursued those proposals in lieu of a gas tax holiday, which Pelosi had rejected outright in March. At the time, she said there was simply no guarantee that the savings would be passed along to consumers.
“The pro is very showbiz. ‘OK, let’s just do something, there it is.’ But it is not necessarily landing in the pocket of the consumer,” Pelosi said at the time.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3533375-pelosi-declines-to-endorse-gas-tax-holiday/
