WASHINGTON - In response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Congress is looking at raising the tax on oil to 32 cents a barrel ?" four times higher than its current rate of 8 cents a barrel, the Associated Press reports. The money would be used to assist in funding cleanups as part of the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

Currently the trust fund has around $1.5 billion, with the law capping outlay for a single spill at $1 billion. The bill would raise that amount to $5 billion per incident. Raising the tax would bring in close to $11 billion between now and 2020.

U.S. produced oil and foreign oil imported have the tax levied to finance a fund the Coast Guard manages to assist in cleaning up spills in waterways. The tax hike is part of a bigger bill that has ballooned into an approximately $200 billion mixed bag of business lawmakers hope to wrap up before Memorial Day.

The House could take up the bill as early as today. The oil industry has not mustered major opposition to the increase but the entire bill would raise the federal budget deficit to around $134 billion, which has drawn disapproval from Republicans and some Democrats.

BP is expected to pay for the cleanup related to the Gulf of Mexico spill, with its executives telling Congress last week that the company would pay "all legitimate claims" for damages. Congress wants the increase to ensure the cleanup fund has enough money to do its job. The Obama administration supports the bill.