Dana Rohrabacher: “My amendment to H.R. 1370 would prohibit the Export-Import Bank from providing assistance for transactions within a…”

“My amendment to H.R. 1370 would prohibit the Export-Import Bank from providing assistance for transactions within a country ruled by a government which is not chosen through free and fair elections, as certified by the President of the United States, or which lacks an independent judiciary. This amendment will also prohibit Export-Import Bank transactions for import from or export to a country with a nondemocratic government. While supporters of an unrestricted Export-Import Bank argue that the Bank's role is to provide support for transactions that cannot find private support, let me note that in countries where private international banks are reluctant to fund business transactions, the Export-Import Bank's subsidized lending and guarantees often reward bad economic policies and relieve nondemocratic governments of the need to create a free market environment that genuinely attracts sound foreign capital investment. Worse than that, these loans reinforce these dictatorial governments, and, basically, these governments that deny their people their basic civil liberties and economic freedoms are being told that they can be subsidized, even though they have these restrictions on their own people and it takes away their pressure then to democratize.”