Pompeo Calls Fuel Fraud Provision Deeply Flawed & Misguided

Statement

Today, Congressman Mike Pompeo (KS-04) commended the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for the release of its study on the fuel fraud provision, which has been diverting non-commercial jet fuel tax revenue, paid for by business and general aviation, to the Highway Trust Fund. Congressman Pompeo's amendment to last year's Highway Bill required the GAO to conduct a study to assess the relevance of the fuel fraud provision and quantify the revenue losses associated with the diversion. The report found that general aviation and the Airport and Airway Trust Fund have lost an estimated total of $1 to $2 billion since fiscal year 2006, following the fuel fraud provision's enactment.

"This GAO report not only confirms that the fuel fraud provision is deeply flawed and misguided -- it demonstrates that the impact on general aviation is far worse than we originally thought. This policy serves no practical purpose in the real world and has accomplished nothing short of robbing the aviation industry of billions of dollars over the past decade. Now that we have the facts, it's time for Congress to fix this problem that it created."

"Kansas and my hometown of Wichita, the Air Capital of the World, is home to thousands of hardworking engineers, machinists, Fixed Base Operators, pilots, flight instructors, and families who depend on a healthy general aviation industry. A tax on general aviation is a tax on them, especially when those tax dollars aren't reinvested in aviation. I appreciate the GAO's work on this report and look forward to working with my friends in Congress to correct this incredibly misguided fuel fraud provision in a manner that supports the general aviation industry."

Pompeo serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Select Committee on Benghazi. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, an Army veteran, and ran two small businesses before joining Congress in 2011.

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