On the recordNovember 4, 2015
Regarding reforms, looking at the underlying legislation that we dealt with last week, those reforms either already existed, have been in place and been ignored by the Ex-Im Bank--we have been waiting several years since the last time I voted against the Ex- Im Bank for these reforms, and they don't do it; they have been ignored--or it is ignorance or malfeasance regarding traditional or standard business or Bank practices. I stand in favor of this amendment because this proposal would prevent the Ex-Im Bank from providing financing to any foreign company or joint venture that benefits from government support when that joint venture's country also has a sovereign wealth fund over $100 billion. Why in the world would we want to subsidize a joint venture that has or could have state backing from its own country? Now, if we enacted this reform for fiscal year 2014, applying this provision would have resulted in an estimated reduction of approximately $3.1 billion or only 15 percent of the Bank's total authorizations, far from killing it, but, again, allowing a needed reform that isn't in the underlying legislation we dealt with this week. I urge support for this amendment.
