The "infrastructure" bill
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Amid the 2,702-page bipartisan infrastructure plan that could get a vote by the week’s end is a series of safety requirements for the vehicles set to travel on all those new and improved roads. The feds are set to make it more difficult to get behind the wheel drunk, requiring automakers to install technology in new cars to prevent drunk driving that could take the form of passive monitors for drivers’ breath, eye scans to check focus or even infrared touch tests on ignition buttons.
A pilot program to create a system for taxing drivers based on their vehicle mileage was slipped into Section 13002 of the legislation entitled, "National motor vehicle per-mile user fee pilot." Senators could change the language as they try to get a final version of the bill that can secure enough votes for passage.
Earlier this year, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg floated the creation of such a system during his confirmation process as a way to fund an infrastructure bill. The idea was later abandoned by the Biden administration.
The current draft legislation requires Buttigieg and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to provide recommendations to Congress three years after the pilot starts, allowing lawmakers to decide then whether to impose a national per-mile tax.
The program would target “passenger motor vehicles, light trucks, and medium- and heavy-duty trucks” and suggest fees that “may vary between vehicle types and weight classes to reflect estimated impacts on infrastructure, safety, congestion, the environment, or other related social impacts."
