Announcement by the Acting Chair

Floor Speech

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I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank her for her tremendous leadership on this issue. I join her; Mr. Heck of Washington; our whip, Mr. Hoyer; Congresswoman Moore of Wisconsin; and so many others on the Republican side of the aisle who have been such strong leaders on reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank.

Mr. Chair, some concerns have been raised here that I think are in need of response.

In terms of this amendment, I rise in opposition to it and state that the Bank's portfolio is well-collateralized, especially in the largest product sector, and it maintains a loss rate of less than one-quarter of 1 percent.

The Bank is also self-funded, largely through user fees collected from foreign customers, and has generated a surplus of close to $7 billion, money that has been sent to the U.S. Treasury to help reduce the deficit.

The previous speaker, Mr. Mulvaney, talked about some incidences of fraud that he said were associated with the Bank. I think it is important for our colleagues and those who are listening to this debate to know that those incidences of fraud were fraud exacted upon the Bank, not by the Bank; and so the charge that this fraud was within the Bank is just simply not true. These were people who tried to defraud the Bank.

Now, there was one incidence of fraud that the members of the staff of the Bank referred to or called out--one incident. So I just don't want anyone to be misled into thinking that, however it was characterized, it is a fact.

That is why we have an IG, and that is why it is so good that in this bill, in terms of fraud and ethics, it creates a nonpartisan chief ethics officer and requires a GAO review at least once every 4 years of the Bank's fraud controls.

Legitimate concerns were raised, but the fact is the Bank should not be associated with fraud that is being exacted against it as if it was committing fraud. That is just not so.

But it is a good evening because we are debating an issue that has strong bipartisan support, that creates jobs, that reduces the deficit, that increases our competitiveness overseas, that enables U.S. companies to have markets for our products overseas, not only big businesses that are addressed in this amendment. That is important as well.

But for small and moderate-sized businesses who would not have the internal resources to find markets abroad, the Ex-Im Bank is created for that purpose.

I thank Mr. Dent and others who have been so much a part of bringing this legislation to the floor. I think it is a victory for the American people that we will have a bill that not only is good for our highways and in terms of transportation, but also reauthorizes the Ex-Im Bank in order to agree with the language in the Senate bill.

So all of these amendments, however well intentioned or well thought out, have the additional burden of taking down the Bank. Maybe you save them for another day, but in the here and now, we do not need any amendments on the Ex-Im Bank in the transportation bill just because the Ex-Im Bank is authorized in the transportation bill in the Senate.

This House very thoughtfully passed our own authorization. I would hope that the Senate would agree to our language unamended.

Again, I commend all of you who made this evening possible, and I look forward to a celebration of passing a highway bill that does not take down the Ex-Im Bank.

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