Waters, Republican Colleague Unveil Bill to Extend Ex-Im Through 2019
A leading congressional supporter of the Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank, along with a Republican colleague, unveiled a draft bill on Oct. 14 that would extend the charter of the credit agency through fiscal year 2019, while requiring the bank to put in place revenue-generating mechanisms to be self-sufficient. The draft (here) would implement a number of safeguards, including the appointment of an Ex-Im Chief Risk Officer. It would also require the Inspector General of the Bank to complete an independent audit of risk in the bank’s portfolio.
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House Financial Services Committee ranking member Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and vice chairman of the committee Gary Miller, R-Calif., joined forces on the bill. Despite repeated claims by Ex-Im advocates that the credit agency fills the coffers of the Treasury Department through its profits, opponents say the bank’s financing puts American taxpayers at risk in order to help corporate cronies of the government. The Ex-Im Bank took in $675 million in “deficit-reducing” profits in fiscal year 2014, said the bank’s president Fred Hochberg in a recent statement (see 14101013). Following months of bitter fighting on Capitol Hill over the future of the bank, Congress authorized its extension through June 2015 as part of a September stopgap funding measure to keep the government running (see 14092203).
The draft bill would also ensure the bank is able to finance dual-use transactions in the future. The Government Accountability Office said in a late August report the credit agency is at times unable to determine if dual-use transactions posed risks to U.S. national security. Ex-Im officials need to more strictly monitor late and missing documentation for those transactions, said GAO (see 14090214).
Many lawmakers have called for expiration of the bank and an end to government export financing globally. Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said in September the global export financing is fueling credit "arms race" (see 14093021). The draft's co-sponsor Miller said the U.S. should crack down on the financing, but Ex-Im renewal is necessary in the short-term. "While the United States should continue to seek to eliminate all market distorting export financing, we must also recognize the reality that it is in our national interest to help American companies secure sales around the world by making sure they are not undercut by aggressive foreign export credit agencies," said Miller in a press release (here).