Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul touted potential benefits of repatriating overseas corporate profits as a way to boost a federal road building account, a proposal he looked to advance a few years back.
“I’m excited about ideas, of ways we could provide for infrastructure, and do it without adding to debt or raising taxes,” Paul said, on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” show on Feb. 12, about repatriation.
“It wouldn’t be borrowed money. It wouldn’t be government money. It would be real money,” the senator added.
Paul did not indicate if he intends to position himself as a key player in infrastructure talks during this Congress. In 2013, he unveiled a bill that would have directed revenue into the Highway Trust Fund at a 5% rate from the repatriation of overseas corporate profits. The legislation was meant to address a looming infrastructure funding crisis that was temporarily addressed by Congress two years later.
Former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), a senior transportation authorizer, had backed Paul’s legislation. “A lot of companies that have a lot of money stuck overseas were in California,” Paul noted.
Last month, Senate Democrats unveiled a $1 trillion blueprint that would back infrastructure projects. Republican leaders have yet to propose an infrastructure funding plan. A five-year highway law enacted in 2015 ensures funding authority for the Highway Trust Fund through 2020.
