Mike Levin: “As the Senator knows, gas prices have fluctuated significantly in the last year. In my own state of Michigan, gas prices…”

“As the Senator knows, gas prices have fluctuated significantly in the last year. In my own state of Michigan, gas prices went from .80 cents a gallon in October 1999 to a high of $1.46 a gallon by June 2000. The Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Local Standards for Operating Costs and Public Transportation Costs, which includes costs for gasoline, are revised in October of each year but are often based on statistics from as long as 2 or 3 years before that. The IRS standards for gasoline costs can be out of date in a fast changing economy. In the event a debtor has experienced significant increases in the costs of buying gasoline for their car, how would the means test adjust for this?”