The Scoop
The Senate’s auto dealer-turned-senator wants to give President Donald Trump’s big bill a tune-up.
Bernie Moreno doesn’t see the bill as a clunker, but the Ohio Republican is seeking a series of tweaks to the legislation that are focused on cars and trucks. It’s a fitting move for Moreno, who owned a group of auto dealerships before winning his Senate seat last year.
Moreno told Semafor that he wants to narrow down the Trump-backed car loan interest deduction to apply only to brand-new cars assembled in the US, rather than the broader range of vehicles approved by the House. Trump indicated support for those changes at a meeting with Senate Finance Republicans on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
“The president is supportive of having it be just for new cars,” Moreno said in an interview.
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Moreno also wants to speed up the bill’s phaseout of current electric vehicle tax credits — from the end of 2025 for most automakers to Sept. 30, 2025. And he’s proposing to double the House’s annual fees for EVs from $250 to $500, while raising the fee for hybrids from $100 to $250 and lowering the excise tax on big trucks from 12% to 2%.
He argued that those changes would boost the economy and help the environment by ushering aging trucks off the road.
“The excise tax discourages companies from buying new tractor-trailers: better for the economy, better for the climate,” Moreno said.
“We want to incentivize the purchase of new ones, because then it has a downstream effect. And what you do is you make the fleet generally more modern and newer, which is better for safety and for the environment,” he added. Some of the ideas like higher fees would bring in more revenue, but the excise tax change would likely cost some revenue.
Moreno also is advocating for higher tariffs, specifically a 50% levy on tire imports from outside Mexico and Canada, and the elimination of fees for violating corporate average fuel economy standards. The latter change was included in the Senate Commerce Committee’s megabill text.
The Ohioan said he’s “confident that we can get the House to [go along]” with his proposed alterations. Moreno handed out a card laying out his priorities to his GOP colleagues on Wednesday and said they are getting a positive reception. He’s also written them up in the form of legislation for the Senate Finance Committee to consider.
The freshman senator has other thoughts on the party-line tax and spending bill, like bringing the $40,000 state and local tax cap down to $15,000 and speeding up the implementation of work requirements for Medicaid to start at the beginning of 2026. But he said he’s not drawing red lines like some like other Republicans and he mostly likes the legislation passed by the House.
“All 53 of us, including Rand, have to remember the main objective of this bill is to prevent a $4 trillion tax increase. That’s goal No. 1, right. Goal No. 2 is: Let’s not be held hostage by the Democrats on a border, military or debt limit deal,” Moreno said. “This is a huge victory.”