House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said Tuesday he’s looking at using would-be revenues from tax reform to pay for lowering rates elsewhere, rather than plowing the money into infrastructure investments in the United States.
Mr. Brady described the idea of using some $2.5 trillion companies now have parked overseas as a vehicle for a big infrastructure investment as a “satellite” hovering around tax reform.
“I’ll tell you up front: I use the revenue from those to lower tax rates on every business in America,” Mr. Brady said at an event hosted by UPS in Louisville, Kentucky. “And so if that’s used for something else, [we’re] going to have to find a way to try to achieve that.”
As a push to move toward a “territorial” tax system, House Republicans want to incentivize companies to bring back the capital they’ve parked overseas by offering them lower tax rates than the levies they currently face. Unlike other countries, the U.S. collects taxes on earnings American companies make abroad.
Mr. Brady said he’s listening and working with the White House, and that the two subjects may intersect at some point.
Members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus in the House had called in May for an infrastructure spending package to be tied to tax reform.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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