Washington -- Senator Grassley issued the following statement about his opposition to higher gas taxes.
“I’m not voting for pending legislation in Congress that contains an oil tax increase. I oppose that bill. It would add $134 billion to the federal deficit. And, I’ve long opposed federal gas tax increases. Given the disaster in the Gulf, new questions have arisen about the stability of the oil-trust fund, and I agree we need to look at how that can be addressed. A gas tax increase is not the way to address that problem, at all. As far as the oil spill clean-up, that’s the responsibility of British Petroleum. BP will be held accountable for the clean-up costs, not American taxpayers.”