Export-Import Bank Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the work that my
chairman has done. I chair the Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee,
the subcommittee that has jurisdiction directly over this.

In the last conference when I was vice chair of that committee, we
started a work group looking at various reforms that could happen, and
that continued on into this term. We had a number of us on all sides of
the issue that were working together.

The real problem arose, though, when those of us who felt that we
needed to move in a direction where we were transferring that liability
from the taxpayer back to businesses--when we felt that we were
proposing some of those reforms, those who were most benefiting from
the program said: Absolutely not. Not a direction we can go. Cannot be
a phaseout. Cannot be a sunset. Cannot be a change to make these
recourse loans. Cannot make them only loans as opposed to grants. In
other words, it was business as usual.

It might be a good business decision to transfer business liability
and risk to somebody else, but it is a bad idea to transfer that
additional liability to the U.S. taxpayer.

I think that we have a couple of issues in front of us, Mr. Speaker,
as was talked about yesterday. First is the issue of the Ex-Im Bank and
the entitlement mentality that has grown up, and that is just a symptom
of it.

As the chairman has said, if we cannot take care of and tackle this
entitlement mentality within the business community, how in the world
are we going to have the moral standing to tackle that same entitlement
mentality on the social side of our spending?

So it is sad to believe, in my mind, that some people think that this
is the only or the best program that we can put forward for the U.S. to
remain competitive on the world stage.

We know that we have put ourselves at a disadvantage through the
regulatory environment that has been created not only under this
administration, but under previous administrations as well. We know
that the tax regime that we have is also a huge problem.
I just ask that my colleagues oppose this effort to make sure that it
is status quo in Washington, D.C.

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Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. I thank the chairman. I appreciate the
opportunity to come back up here to talk again a little bit about this
process.

We were starting to talk about what had happened through the
committee. There is a work group that was put together both in the last
Congress and in this Congress that came up with some, I think, very
interesting things: reforms. Included in the reforms was: How do we
extract ourselves out of this?

You see, here is what happened the last time.
The last time the Bank was reauthorized, it was through a short-
circuited system much like we are experiencing today. It did not go
through regular order. It did not have all of the backing that it
needed. It was kind of jammed down on everybody on the House floor.

To let that smooth over a little bit, there was a requirement that
the U.S. Treasury start a negotiation with the Europeans about one
specific product: the wide-body aircraft. That is what maintains a vast
majority of the business of the Export-Import Bank.

But here is the thing: The U.S. Treasury ignored that directive. They
ignored the law as they were compelled to go in and start talking
about: How do we unwind ourselves internationally from this mess that
has been created?

Then, I think, there is a logical question to ask, Mr. Speaker: If
they are willing to ignore that part of the law, what part of the law
that we are trying to reform now are they willing to ignore?

My guess is all of it because, as I was talking about and as we were
floating these ideas of various reforms of making these recourse loans,
of making sure that--oh, I don't know--a bank examiner could come in
and actually allow this ``Bank'' to pass any banking standards as their
portfolio weighting is way off, they could never pass any kind of exam
that any traditional bank would have to go through.

Every time any of those kinds of commonsense reforms were proposed,
the word came back from down on high--from those big companies that
utilize this bank--and they said, ``No way. No way are we going to
allow this to happen.'' So, truly, the characterization of this being
regular order is way out of line, in my opinion.

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