Republicans Pull Passenger Vehicle Fee After Gop Blowback

A controversial measure to charge $20 on cars to help pay for Trump administration priorities is out of the House Transportation Committee’s reconciliation markup plan for today after several Republicans panned the annual registration fee, a person with direct knowledge of the committee’s plans told POLITICO.

Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.) plans to offer a manager's amendment that will excise the universal registration fee, the person, who was granted anonymity to discuss private plans, said. The change will also boost the annual electric vehicle registration fee to $250 from $200, pare back the air traffic controller system funding from $15 billion to $12.5 billion and reduce the top line number for Coast Guard funding from $23 billion to $21.2 billion.

On Tuesday, Graves said the universal $20 fee on passenger vehicles (other than EVs and hybrids) would lay the foundation to eventually do away with the federal gasoline tax, which hasn’t been increased in decades, but pushback from House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) saying it wasn’t a priority, proved to be too much to keep it in the markup.