United States Export Finance Agency Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARR. Mr. Chair, I rise today in opposition to this bill, not because I believe the Export-Import Bank should not exist under any circumstances, but because I believe we can produce a better bill, a bill that would actually help America compete while holding other nations like China accountable in the global market.

I am concerned that the bill in its current form would actually enable China's malign activities to the detriment of U.S. national security.

Now, let me be clear. I supported the compromise bill that Chairwoman Waters and Ranking Member McHenry negotiated in June, and I compliment my friend, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McHenry) for his leadership on this. I recognize the value a reformed Ex-Im Bank can provide to U.S. businesses.

The new Ex-Im president and chairman, Kimberly Reed, has impressed me. She visited my district and made clear her commitment to helping U.S. exporters, including small businesses in Kentucky, compete in the global market. She also, importantly, committed to reforming the Bank to abandon Obama-era policies that discriminated against Ex-Im support of traditional fossil energy and related exports.

But the bill we are debating today cannot be fixed by a strong leader like Kimberly Reed. It is flawed, it is not the right answer, and we can and should do better.

Specifically, this bill does not go far enough to combat malign Chinese influence and China's aspirations to replace the United States as the preeminent global economic power.

The Communists in Beijing continue to steal our intellectual property and place their thumb on the scale of global economic competitiveness by propping up its economy through state-owned enterprises.

Additionally, we see rampant human rights abuses and violent quashing of freedom seekers in Hong Kong. Over the last 5 months, we have observed protestors in Hong Kong being shot, beaten, gassed, and arrested.

My amendment to this bill, which the Rules Committee did not make in order, would have made Ex-Im assistance to Chinese state-owned enterprises contingent on their commitment to upholding the Sino- British declaration, which established the ``one country, two systems'' principle that would allow Hong Kong to retain its capitalist system.

In his book ``The Hundred-Year Marathon,'' former senior Defense Department official Michael Pillsbury details China's strategy to supplant the United States as the world's dominant power by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. He said, ``Only recently have there been disturbing signs that a more militaristic China may be ascendant, which has caused some to question the wishful thinking that has prevailed for more than 40 years.''

Unless we take a hard stand and a hard line against China, including through more powerful restrictions on the Ex-Im Bank's interactions with Chinese SOEs, we risk ceding our preeminence in a fair and free global market.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill, which will allow U.S. taxpayer funds to subsidize Chinese ascendency and its Communist state-owned enterprises and enable China's theft of our intellectual property, its forced transfer of technology, and its blatant violation of human rights.

This bill could be better. The Export-Import Bank could help us combat Chinese growing imports. This bill doesn't do it.

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