Collins says infrastructure bill won’t have gas tax increase or undo 2017 tax reform bill

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Sunday said the infrastructure bill announced by a bipartisan group of 10 senators will not include a gas tax increase or undo the 2017 tax reform bill.

When asked by host John Dickerson on CBS’s “Face the Nation” how the group plans to pay for the package, Collins, who is part of the bipartisan coalition, silenced rumors of a gas tax increase or rolling back the 2017 tax reform bill, while outlining the group’s strategies for financing the initiatives.

Collins said the group, which includes five senators from each party, is considering three “pay fors”: an infrastructure financing authority, repurposing leftover COVID-19 funding and “a provision for electric vehicles to pay their fair share of using our roads and bridges right now.”

“They are literally free riders because they’re not paying any gas tax. So those are three of the provisions that we’ve taken a look at,” Collins said.

The group of senators on Thursday announced an agreement on a “compromise framework” to invest $1.2 trillion in infrastructure over the next eight years, after President Biden last week ended negotiations with Republicans that were led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.),