Lawmakers on the House Transportation Committee unveiled legislation requiring electric vehicle owners to pay annual federal road-use fees as Congress confronts growing highway funding shortfalls.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
House lawmakers introduced bipartisan legislation that would require owners of electric vehicles to pay new annual federal fees intended to help finance road and highway repairs traditionally funded through gasoline and diesel taxes.
The proposal, unveiled as part of a broader five-year highway reauthorization package, would establish a $130 yearly fee for fully electric vehicles and a $35 annual fee for certain plug-in hybrid models.
Under the legislation, those fees would gradually increase beginning in 2029, rising by $5 annually until reaching $150 for electric vehicles and $50 for qualifying plug-in hybrids.
The proposal is part of a larger transportation bill authorizing approximately $580 billion in federal highway and infrastructure spending ahead of the expiration of current transportation funding law on Sept. 30.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is expected to consider the legislation Thursday. The bill was introduced by committee chairman Rep. Sam Graves and ranking Democratic member Rep. Rick Larsen.
Most federal transportation funding currently comes from gasoline and diesel taxes paid by drivers of conventional vehicles. Because electric vehicles do not consume fuel, lawmakers from both parties have increasingly raised concerns about declining fuel-tax revenue and the long-term sustainability of highway funding mechanisms.
Congress has not increased the federal gasoline tax in more than three decades despite rising infrastructure costs and increased transportation spending demands.
According to the legislation, the new EV fees are intended to ensure electric vehicle owners contribute toward maintaining roads, bridges, and highways they use.
Several states have already implemented similar registration or usage fees targeting electric vehicles to offset declining fuel-tax collections.
The debate over EV-related road taxes has intensified as electric vehicle adoption accelerates nationwide.
In February 2025, several Republican senators proposed a substantially larger $1,000 fee on electric vehicles to help finance infrastructure repairs and transportation funding.
Environmental groups criticized the new House proposal shortly after its release.
The Sierra Club argued the legislation would reduce support for electric vehicle infrastructure while imposing what it described as excessive costs on EV owners.
The group said the bill “includes an irresponsible tax for EV and plug-in hybrid drivers” and criticized provisions that would scale back federal spending related to EV charging infrastructure.
Electric vehicle advocacy organizations have also challenged similar proposals in recent years.
Last year, the Electrification Coalition argued that a proposed $250 annual EV fee would unfairly exceed what many drivers of gasoline-powered vehicles contribute through federal fuel taxes.
The group estimated that the average gas-powered vehicle owner pays approximately $88 annually in federal gasoline taxes.
The proposed legislation also addresses autonomous commercial vehicle regulations.
Under the bill, the U.S. Department of Transportation would be required within two years to establish performance-based federal safety standards governing autonomous buses, trucks, and other commercial vehicles.
The regulations would preempt state-level rules involving commercial autonomous vehicle operations, though the proposal would not apply to passenger cars.
The legislation would additionally require autonomous school buses transporting children to include a human operator onboard.
Transportation funding has remained a growing challenge for Congress for years.
Since 2008, lawmakers have transferred more than $275 billion from the federal general fund into highway programs to compensate for declining fuel-tax revenues and mounting infrastructure costs. That figure includes approximately $118 billion provided through the 2021 infrastructure law.
With the current transportation funding framework set to expire Sept. 30 and congressional elections approaching later this year, some lawmakers have acknowledged that reaching a long-term bipartisan agreement on highway funding could prove difficult.
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