Hearing on Export-Import Bank Reauthorization
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Hearing Date: March 26, 2026
Bryan Riley
Director, Free Trade Initiative
National Taxpayers Union
Submission for the Record
I appreciate the opportunity to submit comments regarding the Export-Import Bank (EXIM) and the Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2026 on behalf of National Taxpayers Union (NTU), a nonpartisan citizen group founded in 1969 to work for less burdensome taxes, more efficient, accountable government, and stronger rights for all taxpayers. More about our work as a nonprofit grassroots organization is available at www.ntu.org.
EXIM’s function is to assume credit risks that the private sector is unwilling to accept. NTU encourages the Committee to require EXIM to report its loan and guarantee activities using fair-value accounting to accurately reflect the risk to taxpayers.
Fair-value accounting provides financial estimates based on the market rate of interest that a private entity would have to pay. NTU has endorsed the Fair-Value Accounting and Budget Act, which would require the Congressional Budget Office to include a fair-value estimate of federal loans and loan guarantees, including those provided by EXIM.
NTU also encourages the Committee to review EXIM mission creep that began under President Biden. EXIM is an export financing agency. But, in 2022, EXIM expanded its mission through its Make More in America Initiative. This initiative provides support to produce goods primarily for the U.S. market if they have an “export nexus.” This expansion of authority was made without congressional approval. NTU encourages the Committee to ensure that EXIM subsidies are directed to the bank’s export financing authority.
Congress has called for negotiations to eliminate predatory export subsidies since Jimmy Carter was president. NTU is encouraged by the proposed extension of negotiations to facilitate the longstanding U.S. goal of eliminating subsidized export-financing programs, tied aid, export credits, and all other forms of government-supported export subsidies. NTU encourages Congress to reiterate the U.S. goal of eliminating export subsidies. Congress should work with executive branch negotiators to bring these talks to a successful conclusion and try to avert decades more of delay and failure.
Increasing the role of market forces by reducing—or even better, eliminating—export subsidies would help prevent abuses by countries like China and reduce taxpayer exposure to risks the private sector is unwilling to undertake. NTU supports your ongoing efforts to achieve this goal.