WASHINGTON – South Dakota Senator John Thune (R), who will soon become the chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, spoke to “Fox News Sunday” about what’s on tap for the upcoming Congress, including the possibility of increasing the federal gasoline tax.

Fox News reports that Republicans are not ruling out raising the federal gas tax to help replenish the “nearly insolvent” Highway Trust Fund, which will be among “the immediate challenges facing the new Republican Congress.”

Last year, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) introduced legislation that would increase the federal gasoline and diesel taxes by six cents in each of the next two years for a total of 12 cents, which the senators said would provide enough funding to offset current Highway Trust Fund spending levels over the next 10 years and replace all of the buying power the federal gas tax has lost since it was last raised in 1993.

In spite of some Republicans who maintain a no tax increase stance, Thune did not quash the idea. "I don't think we take anything off the table at this point," he told the news source.