Federal Gas Tax 2026: How Much It Is and What Suspension Would Do

The federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. It has not changed since 1993. On May 10, 2026, President Trump told reporters he is considering suspending it. That puts a 33-year-old line item back into the news cycle and into millions of fill-ups across the country.

Here is what the federal gas tax actually is, how much it brings in, what a suspension would do at the pump, and what the Highway Trust Fund problem looks like underneath the headline.

What the federal gas tax actually is

Two federal fuel taxes operate side by side:

• Gasoline: 18.4 cents per gallon
• Diesel: 24.4 cents per gallon

Both rates have been frozen since the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which lifted the gasoline rate from 14.1¢ and the diesel rate from 20.1¢. Every president since has either declined to raise it or watched a proposal die in Congress.

The tax is collected at the wholesale level by refiners and importers, but the cost passes through to retail prices, so drivers pay it at the pump. On a $3.30/gal average price today, the federal tax is about 5.6% of what you pay. On the $1.99/gal pump price common in 1993, that same 18.4¢ was closer to 9.2%. So the federal tax burden as a share of pump price has actually fallen over time, while infrastructure costs and consumer wages have risen substantially.

State gas taxes stack on top, and they vary widely. Pennsylvania charges over 57¢/gal. Alaska charges around 8¢. The federal piece is the constant.

Why it hasn't moved since 1993

Two structural reasons.

First, raising any consumer-facing tax is politically expensive, especially one drivers see every time they fill up. The 1993 increase passed with a one-vote margin in the Senate and contributed to the 1994 midterm losses for the party that voted for it. That outcome shaped both parties' caution on the issue for the next three decades.

Second, the tax is not indexed to inflation. Cumulative US inflation since 1993 is roughly 120%, which means the real value of the 18.4¢ rate has dropped to about 8¢ in 1993 dollars. Most other federal tax brackets adjust automatically. The gas tax does not. Every year of inactivity is an effective tax cut.

The combined effect is a tax rate that has eroded in real terms while highway construction costs have roughly tripled. The Highway Trust Fund, which the tax funds, has been running structural shortfalls for over a decade.

What a suspension would do at the pump

The simple math says 18.4¢ less per gallon. But empirical evidence from state-level gas tax holidays in 2022 (Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New York all tried short suspensions) tells a more complicated story:

• Refiners and retailers captured part of the cut. Pass-through to consumers averaged roughly 50 to 70 percent, depending on the state and the duration.
• Most of the consumer savings showed up in the first two weeks of the holiday. As the suspension dragged on, station-level prices crept back up toward pre-holiday levels even though the tax was still off.
• When the holidays ended, pump prices rose back to pre-holiday levels within about a week.

Applied to a 6-month federal suspension at 50-70% pass-through, the realistic at-the-pump impact is roughly 9 to 13 cents per gallon of savings, not the full 18.4¢. For a driver filling a 15-gallon tank, that is $1.35 to $1.95 per fill-up. For typical annual consumption (around 540 gallons for a 13,500-mile commute at 25 mpg), the annual savings land around $50 to $70 during the suspension window.

That is real money, but it is smaller than the headline number suggests. And it disappears the moment the holiday ends.

The Highway Trust Fund question

The federal fuel taxes are not general revenue. They flow into the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for about 80% of federal highway construction and maintenance plus most federal transit funding.

Total Highway Trust Fund revenue from federal fuel taxes runs around $30 billion per year, with roughly $25B from gasoline and $5B from diesel. A 6-month gasoline-only suspension would cost the fund about $12.5B. A 12-month suspension would double that.

The Highway Trust Fund has been running shortfalls since 2008, with Congress regularly transferring tens of billions from general revenue to cover the gap. A federal suspension does not change the underlying infrastructure spend. It changes who pays for it. If the suspended revenue is replaced by general-fund transfers, that is essentially a tax shift from drivers to taxpayers broadly, including non-drivers. If the revenue is not replaced, road quality and bridge maintenance backlogs grow.

This is the trade-off lawmakers actually argue about. The pump-price relief is the consumer headline. The funding question is the infrastructure consequence.

Past gas tax holidays and what happened

Federal suspensions have been proposed several times and have never passed:

• 2008: Senator McCain proposed a "gas tax holiday" in his presidential campaign. The proposal did not gain traction in Congress.
• 2022: President Biden proposed a 3-month suspension of the 18.4¢ federal tax during the post-pandemic crude spike. Congress did not act. The proposal expired without a vote.

State-level holidays have been more common and more revealing:

• Florida (October 2022): One month, 25.3¢/gal state tax suspended. Roughly 60% pass-through to consumers, savings concentrated in the first half of the month.
• Georgia (March-July 2022): Five months, 29.1¢/gal suspended. Long-duration pass-through dropped to closer to 50% as retailers normalized margins.
• Maryland (March-April 2022): One month, 36.1¢/gal suspended. About 70% pass-through, the strongest of the four because the suspension was short enough that retailers could not fully recalibrate.

The general pattern: shorter suspensions, more pass-through. Longer suspensions, more leakage to refiner and retailer margins. The federal suspension being floated in 2026 has not yet specified a duration, which matters more than the headline percentage.

Bottom line for drivers

If a federal gas tax suspension passes, expect pump prices to drop roughly 9 to 13 cents per gallon in the first two weeks, then drift back up as the supply chain absorbs the cut. Annual savings land in the $50 to $70 range for typical consumption. Drivers in states that also suspend their own taxes (some states stack relief on top of federal moves) would see more.

A few habits that produce comparable or larger savings without waiting on Congress:

• Search by ZIP on Gas Price Check before any fill-up. Within most metros, the cheapest and most expensive stations are 30 to 50 cents apart, which is roughly 2-3x a federal tax suspension.
• Use warehouse clubs. Costco, Sam's Club, and BJ's typically run 20-30 cents below surrounding stations regardless of what the federal tax is doing.
• Compare across state lines if you live near a border. State gas taxes vary by up to 50¢/gal, which dwarfs the federal piece.
• Keep tires properly inflated. A tire pressure gauge takes seconds to use before a fill-up. Properly inflated tires improve fuel economy by up to 3%, worth 8-12¢/gal at current prices.
• Run fuel system cleaner periodically. A bottle of Techron fuel injector cleaner through your tank every few months keeps injectors efficient. Small MPG gains compound across hundreds of gallons per year.

The most consistent way to cut your gas spend is at the station-selection level, not the policy level. A federal suspension would help, but the per-fill-up savings from comparing stations in your own ZIP code reliably exceed it.

For broader context on US gas prices by state, see our state-by-state averages. For analysis of why retail prices move asymmetrically with wholesale and policy changes, see our research on rockets-and-feathers pricing.

→ Search gas prices in your ZIP code

→ Gas prices by state

→ Research hub