Heritage Action opposes H.R. 4863 and will include it as a key vote on our legislative scorecard.
This week, the House will vote on the United States Export Finance Agency Act of 2019 (H.R. 4863). Sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), H.R. 4863 would reauthorize the Export-Import Bank for ten years without any significant commonsense bipartisan reforms such as restricting taxpayer dollars from going to Chinese Communist Party backed companies.
The Export-Import Bank has been under fire for many years over its crony business dealings and putting taxpayer dollars at risk.
According to Diane Katz, Senior Research Fellow in Regulatory Policy at The Heritage Foundation, “Boeing alone garnered 70 percent of all Export-Import Bank loan guarantees and 40 percent of all authorizations.” Ironically, the previous lack of a quorum has made the Export-Import Bank much kinder to small businesses. According to the Wall Street Journal: “The lack of a quorum has converted the bank into a financier of small business, which proponents have always argued is the place’s purpose. The Mercatus Center at George Mason University recently released an analysis showing that in 2018 some 66 percent of the bank’s financing flowed to small businesses, versus 25 percent in 2014.”
A 2014 CBO estimate revealed that, if the bank were to use generally accepted (fair value) accounting principles, the bank would cost taxpayers $2 billion over a decade.
Many proponents of the Export-Import Bank claim it’s needed to protect American workers and businesses and combat China, but the bank’s actions have had the opposite effect.
Taxpayer-backed Export-Import Bank loans are aiding foreign companies backed by countries such as China, Mexico, and Turkey. The Air Transport Association has estimated that the bank’s loans to foreign airlines alone have killed as many as 7,500 jobs for domestic airlines in the United States.
Unfortunately, House Democrats have refused to include any reforms in H.R. 4863 that would put American companies first by restricting aid to foreign-backed companies.
President Trump and Republican lawmakers were elected to drain the swamp and stand up for working-class Americans, not boost government programs that help politically connected multinational corporations and subsidize China. Congress should reject this bill and efforts to include Ex-Im Bank reauthorization in any potential end of the year spending package.
Heritage Action opposes H.R. 4863 and will include it as a key vote on our legislative scorecard.