WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced legislation this week to phase in over the next three years a 15 cents per gallon federal tax increase on gasoline and diesel.

H.R. 3636, the Update, Promote, and Develop America’s Transportation Essentials (UPDATE) Act, seeks to fund public infrastructure by generating roughly $170 billion over 10 years.

“The gas tax hasn’t been increased since the beginning of the Clinton administration,” Blumenauer said in a press release. “Today, with inflation and increased fuel efficiency for vehicles, the average motorist is paying about half as much per mile as they did in 1993. It’s time for Congress to act.”

He continued that instituting “a reasonable gas tax increase now provides the revenues Democrats say they want with a form of a user fee which historically has been acceptable to Republicans including Ronald Reagan, who increased the gas tax by a nickel a gallon in 1982.

On his website, Blumenauer released statements of support for his bill from the Oregon Business Association, Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council, United Parcel Service, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, Amalgamated Transit Union, Transportation for America, Getting America to Work Coalition, American Public Transportation Association, American Council of Engineering Companies, and others.