United States Export Finance Agency Act of 2019

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HUIZENGA. Mr. Chair, I appreciate Mr. McHenry yielding to me, and I rise today in opposition to H.R. 4863, the United States Export Finance Agency Act.

According to its charter, the mission of the Export-Import Bank is to ``contribute to maintaining or increasing employment of United States workers'' by subsidizing the export of U.S. goods and services to foreign markets.

Over the years, Congress has amended Ex-Im's charter to reflect numerous congressional interests regarding lending practices, transparency, and foreign policy objectives, so much so, that the Bank's charter has grown from four pages at its inception to more than 150 pages now, and with that expansion, we have seen the Bank expand its portfolio to a staggering $135 billion.

Well, each reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank has afforded Congress the opportunity to revisit the charter and to work for reform and to modernize the Bank appropriately. However, this flawed partisan proposal that we have before us today fails to make any meaningful reforms to the Export-Import Bank.

Now, despite the claims that you are hearing across the aisle about the company not being able to do business with China and Russia, this simply isn't the fact.

In fact, I had an amendment, two amendments, that would have actually not allowed the bank to deal with state-owned enterprises in China and in Russia.

Now, why? Because of this: the human rights record in China is deplorable. We are seeing it play out today in Hong Kong, literally, right now.

We also know that we are battling the Belt and Road Initiative that has been a Chinese initiative that has gone around the world, and it has no business getting U.S. taxpayer dollars in support of it.

Well, this initiative allows the Bank to provide taxpayer financing to entities owned and controlled by the Chinese Government, including Chinese state-owned enterprises involved in military activities, human rights abuses, and this Belt and Road Initiative.

At a time when China is diverting massive subsidies to state-owned enterprises, specifically through the use of export subsidies, why would Congress authorize the use of taxpayer dollars to make the Chinese Communist Party's job easier? I am baffled by that.

Now, claims of the opposite can be repeated and they can be repeated in louder and louder voices, but that still doesn't make it true.

The simple fact is my amendment that was rejected by the other side of the aisle would have limited interaction with Chinese and Russian state-owned actors.

Well, we all know that the primary goal of the Export-Import Bank is to support American jobs through exports. However, any Ex-Im reauthorization that doesn't address the strategic threat to our national interests posed by China's economic and military efforts is not in the best interests of American workers or jobs.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HUIZENGA. Mr. Chair, I will move quickly through this.

Yes, it is true, I have been a sharp critic of the Export-Import Bank. I have been accused of wanting to do nothing more than shut it down by the other side, as much was said to the ranking member.

However, I was also a part of a group trying to come up with a bipartisan agreement in 2012 and 2015, and I was willing to support the bipartisan bill that was introduced by the ranking member and the chair.

I wasn't necessarily happy with all the provisions, but I felt that there was sufficient and significant progress made in those much-needed reforms.

Well, unfortunately, this bipartisan agreement was abandoned by the other side. The bill that we have before us is a flawed bill, and I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source