DOT chief pessimistic about offshore taxes-for-roads prospects

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Tuesday that is not sure if Congress has enough time to craft a highway bill that utilizes taxes on overseas corporate profits to pay for roads. 

Foxx said Tuesday that he is not sure the House and the Senate will be able to come to an agreement on an offshore tax proposal, although he supports the idea. 

“The short answer is I don’t know,” he said when asked by reporters about the overseas tax proposal’s prospects in the upcoming weeks.

{mosads}”I would say right now it looks more bleak than it has for awhile,” he said. 

The federal government’s authority to reimburse states for transportation projects is set to run out on Oct. 29. 

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is currently working to tie a major infrastructure package with a revamp of the U.S.’s international tax rules for business. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is rumored to be working with Ryan on a potential bicameral agreement. 

The Obama administration has long included a proposal to institute a mandatory 14 percent tax rate on overseas earnings to help pay for a four-year, $478 billion highway bill. 

Republicans have said the taxes should be levied at a lower rate and on a voluntary bases to reward companies who choose to move profits back to the U.S.

Foxx has pushed Congress to pass a multiyear transportation funding bill to end a stretch of highway measure that last shorter than two years that has stretched since 2005. 

He said Tuesday that he is still talking to members of House and Senate to urge them to take up Obama’s $478 billion proposal, although the package has largely been ignored by lawmakers. 

“I talk to folks all the time. I was actually on the floor last week when the Pope spoke and said my own prayers about getting a highway bill passed,” he quipped.  

Foxx said “an unambiguous signal to not only states and local governments, but also frankly to private contractors that it’s time to scale up.”   

“I’m encouraged if people are talking about trying to answer the question that we’ve been posing for the entire time I’ve been here, which is when is this country going to get off it’s duff and start producing again,” he said. 

“When people say we’re going to pass a bill, I don’t know if that means get through the House or whether that means get through the House and get agreement with the Senate and get it all done within the timeframe, but either way if folks are moving forward, that’s good for the order,” Foxx concluded.