This afternoon, NTU's Nan Swift joined many of our 30 partners in the effort to prevent the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) on Capitol Hill for an impressive show of solidarity.
Speakers from 11 different organizations spoke, highlighting the need to put an end to the Ex-Im Bank and urging action now.
Ex-Im took a beating from all angles, absorbing critiques of its opaque bookkeeping - which obscures its true costs to taxpayers - incestuous relationships with companies that benefit from its loans, the damage it causes to less politically-connected U.S. companies, and more.
NTU Federal Affairs Manager Nan Swift called Ex-Im “an anachronistic corporate welfare program that should be ended immediately," and added: “The federal government shouldn’t be propping up direct competitors for U.S. products using taxpayer-backed credit.”
Nan also hammered Ex-Im for the hypocritical situation that has the bank supporting foreign Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production in territories to which U.S. gas companies may be prohibited from exporting:
“Robust competition and free trade dictate that competitors to U.S. natural gas will and should develop their own energy resources. But the federal government shouldn’t be propping up direct competitors for U.S. products using taxpayer-backed credit - Not when our own producers are not allowed to compete on that playing field.”
Check out all of NTU's work to bring light to this dark financial entity HERE.