Biden will call on Congress to pause gas tax for 3 months

Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

President Joe Biden will ask Congress on Wednesday to suspend the federal gas tax until September as Americans across the country grapple with soaring prices as the pump.

The president will urge members of Congress to institute a three-month federal gas tax holiday without stripping money from the Highway Trust Fund that finances highways and mass transit.

"I want to be very clear, the president is calling on Congress to take this step to help American families without harming the Highway Trust Fund, which is funded by these taxes," a senior administration official said Tuesday evening.

The official suggested that the federal government's budget deficit shrinking by $1.6 trillion this year gives the U.S.

The federal government currently charges 18 cents in taxes per gallon of gasoline and imposes a 20% tax for each gallon of diesel, the official said.

The official further stated that the president is pushing for the gas industry and oil retailers to cut the price of gas as oil prices begin to lower.

"He is also calling on the industry to put its record profits to work and step up with more supply and more refining capacity to bring down gas prices and specifically calling for major oil refineries to come to the table with concrete solutions when the secretary of energy convenes them later this week," the official said.

"And when the cost of oil does come down as it has over the last couple of weeks, the president is calling on retailers to properly lower their prices and pass the savings on to consumers," the official continued.

The president accused oil refiners of driving up gas prices in letters sent last week to seven refinery operators, including Chevron, ExxonMobil and BP.

"While the gas tax holiday may reduce prices at the pump, it will further increase demand for gasoline and other goods and services at a time when the economy has little capacity to absorb it," the blog post said

Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper