04-08-2000

TAXES: Senate on Record Against Gas Tax Cut

As part of its debate on the fiscal 2001 budget resolution this week, the
Senate on April 6 approved, 66-34, an amendment offered by Sen. Robert C.
Byrd, D-W.Va., opposing a repeal of the 4.3-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax
imposed in 1993. Although the "sense of the Senate" amendment is
not binding, the vote put the Senate on record as floor debate loomed on a
separate gas-tax repeal bill pushed by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott,
R-Miss. That measure would roll back the 4.3-cent tax and temporarily
rescind the full 18.4-cent gas tax if average prices top $2 a gallon. Also
on April 6, the Senate by a 51-49 vote let stand a budget provision that
assumes the government will earn $1.2 billion by allowing oil to be taken
from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The votes came as part
of the Senate's self-described "vote-a-rama" on the annual
budget resolution, during which Senators may offer amendments even after
the 50 hours of debate time has run out. In the end, the Senate was
expected to approve its budget, which would provide $596.5 billion in
discretionary funding. The House passed its budget resolution on March
24.


David Baumann/National Journal

National Journal