Rep. Justin Amash introduces a bill that would shut down the Export-Import Bank

U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., is seen during a congressional panel at the 2016 Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015, in Mackinac Island, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) introduced a bill on Thursday that would end the Export-Import Bank.

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A press release from the Congressman says that his bill, H.R. 3114, the Export-Import Bank Termination Act of 2017, would shut down the “crony bank, which subsidizes loans for a few politically connected corporations at the expense of American businesses and taxpayers.”

“The Export-Import Bank is a prime example of Washington’s addiction to political cronyism,” Amash said of the bank. “Instead of allowing businesses to compete in a free market, politicians pick winners and losers. Meanwhile, taxpayers assume the financial risk for the bank’s federally backed loans while a few corporations pocket the profits.”

Rep. Amash has long advocated for the termination of the Ex-Im Bank. In 2013, Amash was joined by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) in introducing legislation in the House and the Senate that would repeal the bank.

The bill has the support of Reps. Dave Brat (R-Va.), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Michael Burgess (R-Tex.), Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), who were all original cosponsors.

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“The Export-Import Bank is a source of corporate welfare that puts taxpayers at unnecessary risk,” Sen. Lee said in 2013. “Instead of subsidizing exports, which encourages an international corporate subsidy bidding war, we should be using multilateral agreements to eliminate business subsidies in all nations. The Ex-Im Bank has outlived its usefulness, and it’s time to end the Bank’s market distortion and political cronyism.”

Amash said that the Ex-Im Bank has “always been a bad idea and needs to be shut down.”

“Export subsidies, like those provided by the Export-Import Bank, serve only to enrich well-connected special interests at the expense of the rest of the country,” he said.

“You essentially back the loan for a foreign company so that they can buy stuff from Boeing,” Amash later added in 2015, calling the bank “corporate welfare.”

The full text of the current bill can be found here.

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