Why federal lawmakers want to charge you $20 for driving your car

Proposed fee part of effort to get rid of federal gas tax

Federal lawmakers have suggested instituting a $20 annual fee for cars as they attempt to move away from the federal gas tax.

The House Transportation Committee included the proposal in the draft text of its portion of the GOP’s domestic policy bill.

The draft text, set to be marked up on Wednesday, includes $15 billion for aviation system upgrades, as well as new fees for electric vehicles, in addition to the $20 annual fee on all other passenger vehicles, Politico noted.

The fee is part of an effort to depart from the existing gasoline tax, which hasn’t been raised since 1993 and currently stands at 18.4 cents per gallon. The buying power of the federal tax has decreased while infrastructure spending has risen. But any suggestion to raise the tax has been a political non-starter.

Apart from the $20 fee, the proposal would also add a $200 annual vehicle registration fee for electric vehicles and a $100 fee for hybrid vehicles. The panel estimates that the fees will bring in $50 billion over the next 10 years.

A new proposal would institute a $20 annual fee for cars as part of an effort to remove the federal gas tax (Getty Images)

“The Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration shall impose for each year the following registration fee amounts on the owner of a vehicle registered for operation by a State transportation department: “(1) $200 for a covered electric vehicle. “(2) $100 for a covered hybrid vehicle. “(3) $20 for a covered motor vehicle that is not a covered electric vehicle or a covered hybrid vehicle,” the draft text states.

Legislators have considered instituting a system based on the number of miles a person drives; however, it’s an idea with privacy concerns, and state-level projects have yet to be implemented on the national level.

The chair of the committee, Missouri Republican Sam Graves, said that the registration fees for electric and hybrid vehicles would take effect immediately. In contrast, the fee on other passenger vehicles would not take effect until 2031.