{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://valadao.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=356", "Reps. Valadao, Obernolte lead California Delegation in Renewed Request to Suspend California Gas Tax", "2022-06-27", "2022", "2022-06", "Republican", "House", "CA", "David G. Valadao", "V000129", "valadao.house.gov", "valadao", "https://valadao.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, Congressman David G. Valadao (CA-21) and Congressman Jay Obernolte (CA-08) led the entire California Republican Congressional Delegation in a renewed call to Governor Gavin Newsom to suspend the state\u2019s gas tax, which is currently scheduled to increase by 3 cents on July 1.\n\n\u201cWhen we requested a full repeal of California\u2019s gasoline tax in March of this year, Californians were paying $4.80 per gallon of gasoline. Today that price has ballooned to $6.43 per gallon, a 34 percent increase in only three months. A full repeal of the state gas tax in March could have saved Californians $17 million per day and $1.5 billion to date. But instead they were forced to pay an additional fifty-one cents per gallon as a result of California\u2019s gasoline tax, the highest in the nation,\u201d the members wrote.\n\nTheir official request to the Governor also urged support for a repeal of the state\u2019s indexing of the gas tax to inflation considering inflation rates are continuing to rise at the highest rate in 40 years:\n\n\u201cWe strongly urge you to heed President Biden\u2019s request and work with the Legislature to suspend our state\u2019s gasoline tax. Furthermore, we ask that you support a repeal of our state\u2019s policy of indexing the gas tax to inflation. Amidst historic uncertainty in global energy markets and California\u2019s unique vulnerability to supply shocks, California families deserve tax relief that reflects the severity of the economic realities they face.\u201d\n\nCalifornians currently pay the highest gas prices nationwide thanks in part to the state\u2019s highest-in-the-country gas tax, even as California is set to collect nearly $100 billion more from taxpayers this year than it needs to support expenditures. Combined with the almost $30 billion in federal infrastructure funds the state received from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress, the State of California has enough revenue for an unconditional suspension of the gas tax for the next 20 years without the reduction of a single penny in infrastructure spending.\n\nReps. Valadao and Obernolte were joined by Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23), Reps. Doug LaMalfa (CA-01), Ken Calvert (CA-42), Young Kim (CA-39), Michelle Steel (CA-48), Mike Garcia (CA-25), Darrell Issa (CA-50), Connie Conway (CA-22), and Tom McClintock (CA-04) in the official request to Governor Newsom.\n\nRead the full letter here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T02:39:01Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://valadao.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=356"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2258687056601048, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}