Talking Texas Transportation

Last week I spent a lot of time talking transportation, which is critical to our state and the nation. On Wednesday, I spoke at the South Texas Transportation Summit in Victoria and on Thursday I spoke to the I-69 alliance in Houston after the opening of 12 additional miles of I-69. Both groups were interested in the status of a long-term federal highway bill. As with many things in Washington, the hold-up is money. We cannot keep spending money we don’t have.

Congress passed a fully paid-for short-term highway extension last month to give the Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Paul Ryan, time to figure out how to maintain our highways without raising taxes or further increasing the deficit. One possible way to pay for highways is to lower taxes on money American companies earn abroad. Currently, there are hundreds of billions of dollars firms keep offshore because the tax on bringing that money home is too high. Lowering taxes on those earnings will encourage repatriation and generate revenue.

As the senior Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I'm working hard to ensure Texas' transportation needs are met in an environmentally and economically sound manner. That includes work on projects like I-69, the Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge, widening and deepening at the Port of Corpus Christi, additional docks and rail at the Port of Victoria, Intercoastal Waterway maintenance, and railroad and pipeline expansion and safety.