WASHINGTON – Bloomberg reported last week that President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser suggested that increasing the federal gasoline tax in 2018 could help pay for the administration’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan, U.S. Representative Tom Reed said.

“National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn brought up the fuel tax as a way to help fund promised upgrades to U.S. roads, bridges and other public works during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers dubbed the Problem Solvers Caucus on Wednesday,” writes the news source.

The federal excise tax is 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel fuel, and has not been raised since 1993. While there have been proposals to raise the tax over the years, they’re often met by stiff opposition from members of Congress “and others loath to raise taxes,” writes the news source.

On May 1, after Trump floated the idea in an interview with Bloomberg News, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (the tax-writing committee of Congress) seemed cold to the idea. The news source notes that when asked if he’d rule out the gas tax, Brady responded: “In my view, yes, but we’re going to have that discussion.” Last week, Brady suggested in comments to Bloomberg that his position is still the same on raising the gas tax. “I’m going to stay focused on tax reform right now,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) told Bloomberg he would support a gas tax increase. “It’s a user fee,” he said. “We’ve got to convince people that the money goes to roads and bridges and not all the other bull.”