Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2822, Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016; Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2042, Ratepayer Protection Act of 2015; And Providing for Proceedings During the Period from June 26, 2015, Through July 6, 2015

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Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. As he points out, we are 1 legislative day away from the end of the authorization of the Ex-Im Bank.

American businesses are already losing contracts as foreign companies must decide whether to structure themselves around American equipment or whether to buy equipment from another source. That foreign source offers stable export promotion authority financing provided by the governments of Germany, Japan, China, et cetera; whereas, we dawdle here.

The purpose of a rule is to decide how the House will devote its time here on the floor. The most pressing matter before us is the Export-Import Bank. That is why we should defeat the rule and focus the House on the most pressing matter, and we should allow the House to work its will. A majority of this body wants to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank, but instead, we are being held hostage by a group inside only one of the two caucuses.

I gave 100 speeches for George McGovern. I am proud of that. We were accused of unilateral disarmament being our platform. This is a platform for unilateral disarmament because this is a platform that says Germany, Japan, and China will provide concessionary financing to push their exports, and we will be disarmed in the world of business.

The Export-Import Bank makes money. The CBO concludes that; generally accepted accounting principles conclude that. The enemies of the Bank have concocted a fantasy accounting system, and only under that system, used nowhere else, is there any argument that the Export-Import Bank does not make money.

We have hundreds of thousands of American jobs at stake. They should not be sacrificed on the alter of a new religion. Ayn Rand is not a deity; ``Fountainhead'' is not Holy Scripture, and we need to make practical decisions in the real world where we face real competition from real competitors.

That is why we need to focus the attention of this House on today's most pressing issue, the reauthorization of Ex-Im Bank.

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