Toomey on EXIM’s Domestic Finance Initiative: This is Worse Than Mission Creep
Washington,
D.C. – U.S. Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat
Toomey (R-Pa.) today criticized the Export-Import Bank of the United States’
(EXIM) vote to approve a new Domestic Finance Initiative. The program would
provide taxpayer subsidies to domestic manufacturing facilities and
infrastructure projects—even if the EXIM-financed projects do not export
anything.
“There
is no reason that taxpayers should have to back domestic financing when we live
in a highly developed market economy in which promising businesses have access
to capital on competitive terms. Even worse, this unprecedented program
subverts Congressional intent by straining the interpretation of EXIM’s charter
to such an extent as to make it meaningless. This is worse than mission creep.”
On
March 10, Senator Toomey sent
a letter to EXIM asking for more information about the proposed
Domestic Finance Initiative and urged EXIM not to present it to its Board of
Directors without first publishing a comprehensive framework for the program and
receiving public comments. On March 23, EXIM sent Senator Toomey a response,
which raises more concerns about the program’s nature. EXIM also refused to
acknowledge the Ranking Member’s request for public comment, and proceeded to
vote today despite few public details regarding the program.
Following Senator Toomey’s letter, the Washington
Post published a column by
George Will highlighting concerns about EXIM’s Domestic Finance
Initiative. As Mr. Will writes in his column, such a program reaches far beyond
EXIM’s statutory mandate.
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