Republicans just spent four years telling you Washington was broken.
Now one of them is trying to slip a national car tax past you.
And Ron DeSantis just called him by name.
What Sam Graves Is Hiding Inside a Patriotic Bill
Representative Sam Graves of Missouri chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
He is a Republican.
Last week, Graves filed HR 8870 and gave it a name designed to make you feel good: the "BUILD America 250 Act."
He also brought a Democrat along – Ranking Member Rick Larsen of Washington – and called the whole thing bipartisan.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2058298853565100338?s=20
Here's what bipartisan means in Washington: two politicians from different parties agreeing to take more of your money.
Buried inside this 1,005-page bill is a provision requiring every EV owner in America to pay a $130 annual federal registration fee.
Hybrid owners pay $35.
Both fees automatically increase every two years starting in 2029 – and they don't stop climbing until they hit $150 and $50 respectively.
But the fee is almost beside the point.
The mechanism is what should make you furious.
Graves' bill doesn't just impose the tax. It conscripts your state DMV into collecting it for the federal government – and threatens to strip 125% of highway funding from any state that refuses to comply.
DeSantis put it plainly: "Commandeering state DMVs into federal tax collectors is not constitutional."
He's right.
The Supreme Court established the anti-commandeering doctrine over 30 years ago – the federal government cannot force state governments to administer a federal program. The Court struck it down in New York v. United States in 1992. They struck it down again in Printz v. United States in 1997.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2058512247232532915?s=20
Sam Graves either doesn't know this or doesn't care.
This Is Exactly What They Always Do
DeSantis also flagged something the press corps skipped right past.
"The tax would be extended to all cars in no time," he wrote. "Just say no!"
That's not a hypothetical.
That's a pattern.
The federal income tax started as a 1% levy on incomes above $3,000 – equivalent to roughly $100,000 today.
The federal gas tax started at one cent per gallon in 1932.
Both started small. Both grew. Neither stopped.
Once the federal government has the legal authority to require state DMVs to collect a vehicle fee on its behalf, the amount is just a number.
A number that can change.
A number Congress will change the moment they need more revenue and think you're not paying attention.
This is also not the first time Republicans tried to run this specific play.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2058300723113206132?s=20
The original draft of the One Big Beautiful Bill – the bill Trump signed last year – included even higher EV and hybrid fees.
A group of Republican lawmakers pushed back and got them stripped from the final version.
Sam Graves waited and brought them back.
What DeSantis Understands That Washington Has Forgotten
The conservative case for limited government doesn't have an exception for cars.
It doesn't have an exception for EVs you personally dislike.
If the principle is that Washington takes too much, taxes too much, and reaches too far into your life – then that principle applies to Representative Sam Graves of Missouri just as much as it applies to anyone else with a (R) next to their name.
DeSantis isn't fighting this because he loves electric vehicles.
He's fighting it because states are not federal tax collection agencies.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2058314914989547575?s=20
Because the Tenth Amendment still means something.
Because the moment you let Washington commandeer your state DMV to collect one fee, you've handed them the infrastructure to collect any fee.
The Transportation Committee passed HR 8870 by a 62-2 vote last Thursday. The amended text still hasn't been published, and nobody knows if the fees survived the markup.
What we do know is that Sam Graves wrote this bill, called it patriotic, and brought a Democrat in to help sell it.
Ron DeSantis saw what it actually was.
Sources:
- Ron DeSantis, post on X (formerly Twitter), @RonDeSantis, May 24, 2026.
- "BUILD America 250 Act," HR 8870, 119th Congress, Congress.gov, May 2026.
- Sam Graves press release, "Graves Introduces Bipartisan, Five-Year Surface Transportation Reauthorization," graves.house.gov, May 2026.
- "The Anti-Commandeering Doctrine," Congress.gov/CRS, 2018.
- "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," HR 1, 119th Congress (Public Law), Congress.gov, 2025.
