Fill up a 15-gallon tank right now and $2.76 of what you pay goes straight to the federal government. Three bills moving through Congress would zero that out, temporarily killing the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax for as long as six months. President Trump has publicly backed the idea. But the money those 18.4 cents generate is not abstract: it funds the Highway Trust Fund, which reimburses states for road, bridge, and transit construction. Pause the tax for half a year and roughly $20 billion to $21 billion in revenue disappears, based on annual fuel consumption data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the per-gallon rates set by federal law.
The average American household already spends approximately $2,800 a year on gasoline. With the national average hovering near $3.50 per gallon as of late May 2026, according to AAA, the political appetite for even modest relief is real. The question is whether that relief is worth the infrastructure trade-off.
Three bills, three approaches
The broadest push in the Senate comes from S. 4032, the Gas Prices Relief Act. It would amend Internal Revenue Code section 4081 to zero out the 18.4-cent gasoline excise tax for a defined window. The suspension would apply only to gasoline, leaving the 24.4-cent diesel tax and other fuel levies intact.
Over in the House, H.R. 8600 takes a different tack. Instead of a blanket pause, it would suspend the gas tax only when the national average price tops $3.99 per gallon, then reinstate it once prices fall below that threshold. The trigger design is meant to reserve relief for genuine price spikes. At current prices, the trigger would not activate.
The third proposal, H.R. 8753 (the Gas Tax Relief Act) from Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), is the most aggressive. It would halt both the gasoline and diesel taxes for 90 days, with a presidential option to extend. “This legislation will provide immediate relief to hardworking Americans at the pump while ensuring that our roads and bridges continue to be funded,” Malliotakis said in a press release from her office. Her bill directs the Treasury to transfer general funds into the Highway Trust Fund and the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund, shifting the cost from drivers to the broader federal budget. Taxpayers would still foot the bill, just through a different line item.
Why the president cannot do this alone
Trump has said he wants the suspension to happen, but the federal gas tax is codified in the Internal Revenue Code. No executive order can rewrite a tax statute. Congress must pass legislation to change the rate, which is why the existence of multiple competing bills matters more than any White House statement. Until one of these measures clears both chambers and reaches the president’s desk, the 18.4-cent tax remains in effect at every pump in the country.
This is not the first time a federal gas tax holiday has been floated. President Biden called for a three-month suspension in the summer of 2022, when gas prices topped $5 per gallon nationally. That proposal never received a Senate vote. The political dynamics have shifted since then, with Republicans now controlling both chambers, but the core fiscal objection from deficit hawks in both parties has not disappeared.
The Highway Trust Fund is already running on fumes
The fund that would absorb the revenue loss is not flush with cash. Federal Highway Administration ledgers show outflows for road and transit reimbursements closely tracking incoming fuel-tax receipts in fiscal year 2026, leaving thin margins. And this shortfall is not new. Since 2008, Congress has authorized roughly $275 billion in general-fund transfers to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The fund’s structural deficit predates any proposed holiday; a suspension would simply accelerate the squeeze.
If the Malliotakis backfill mechanism stalls or faces its own legislative fight, state transportation departments could see delayed federal reimbursements for active construction projects. States would then face a choice: tap their own reserves or pause work. No federal agency has published a list of which projects are most at risk, leaving planners to model scenarios without clear guidance from Washington.
It is also worth noting that the federal gas tax is only one layer. Drivers pay state gas taxes on top of the federal levy, and those rates vary enormously, from around 9 cents per gallon in Alaska to more than 60 cents in California and Pennsylvania. A federal suspension would not touch those state taxes, so the savings at the pump would be smaller than some drivers might expect.
Will drivers actually pocket the full 18.4 cents?
A tax holiday assumes that every penny of the suspended tax reaches consumers at the pump. Experience suggests that is unlikely. When several states paused their own gas taxes in 2022, researchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research found that pass-through rates varied widely. Georgia, which suspended its 29.1-cent state gas tax from March through May of that year, saw prices drop noticeably but not by the full amount of the tax, as wholesalers captured a portion of the difference. Some other states saw 70% or more of the tax cut reflected in lower retail prices, while others saw far less.
In a tight refining market, the same dynamic could play out at the federal level. That means drivers might pocket closer to 12 or 13 cents per gallon rather than the full 18.4 cents, trimming the per-fill-up savings from $2.76 to roughly $1.80 or $1.95. The savings are still real, but they are not guaranteed to match the headline number.
The expiration problem nobody wants to talk about
None of the three bills offers a detailed plan for what happens when the clock runs out. If the tax reverts to 18.4 cents overnight, drivers will see a visible price jump at the pump on a single day. That is a politically toxic outcome, the kind of sticker shock that could generate the same public anger the holiday was designed to relieve.
Phasing the tax back in gradually would soften the blow but extend the period of reduced revenue, deepening the hole in the Highway Trust Fund. Lawmakers have not publicly addressed this trade-off. No committee markup or floor vote has been scheduled for any of the three proposals as of early June 2026.
A few dollars per fill-up vs. billions for crumbling roads
Until the Congressional Budget Office publishes a formal cost estimate tied to one of these specific bills, the $21 billion figure should be understood as a reasonable projection drawn from fuel-consumption data and statutory tax rates, not an audited number. What is not in dispute is the tension at the center of this debate: a few dollars of relief per fill-up for roughly 230 million licensed American drivers, weighed against billions of dollars that fund the roads those drivers depend on every day. Congress has kicked this can before. The question now is whether the political appeal of cheaper gas is strong enough to kick it again.
