Transportation Secretary Mary Peters on the long-term validity of the gas tax and increased private investment in infrastructure. Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minnesota) said the Bush administration's plan to eventually eliminate the use of the gas tax in lieu of increased toll roads and other user fees is a "narrow, myopic, uninspired and fragmentational approach."

Secretary Peters said the gas tax should not be eliminated "at this point in time," leading Oberstar to respond, "Not at any point in time." Peters said that the gas tax is not effective at reducing congestion and hurts poor people more than congestion pricing.
  
Peters was chairman of the 12-member public-private National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, which recommended increasing the 18.4-cent-per-gallon gas tax by 25 to 40 cents per gallon in five years. However,  Peters joined two other commissioners in opposing that and some other recommendations.

Highways and Transit Subcommittee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) countered that congestion pricing and some other user fees espoused by the Bush administration would be more costly to low-income drivers than the gas tax. "People are not out there just cruising around during the most congested times of the day for fun," DeFazio said.