Export-Import Bank Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2015

Bill: 114-hr-597
Sponsor: Rep. Fincher, Stephen Lee [R-TN-8]
Introduced: 2015-01-28 in the House
Policy area: Foreign Trade and International Finance
Subjects: Accounting and auditing
Banking and financial institutions regulation
Climate change and greenhouse gases
Competitiveness, trade promotion, trade deficits
Computers and information technology
Congressional oversight
Credit and credit markets
Environmental assessment, monitoring, research
Executive agency funding and structure
Export-Import Bank of the United States
Fraud offenses and financial crimes
Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
Government ethics and transparency, public corruption
Government information and archives
Government lending and loan guarantees
Government studies and investigations
Inflation and prices
Insurance industry and regulation
Interest, dividends, interest rates
Public-private cooperation
Small business
Trade agreements and negotiations

Summary:
action_date: 2015-01-28
text: 

Reform Exports and Expand the American Economy Act

 
This bill amends the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 to establish an Office of Ethics, headed by a Chief Ethics Officer, in the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
 
The review of Bank fraud controls by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shall now be quadrennial instead of once only, and followed by reports to Congress.
 
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System shall report to Congress: (1) semiannually on the terms and conditions (including interest rates, maturities, and credit standards) that private financial institutions apply in providing export finance; and (2) annually on the steps the Bank has taken to adjust the pricing of products offered, and the credit standards used, to avoid crowding out private export finance.
 
The Bank's Board of Directors must include in their annual report to Congress any recommendations about countries with whom and in which it should not be doing business.
 
The GAO must conduct annual audits of the Bank's loan, guarantee, insurance, and credit programs.
 
The Chief Ethics Officer shall draft a Code of Ethics prescribing strict and definite standards of official conduct for all Bank directors, officers, and employees, including conflict-of-interest prohibitions.
 
The Bank shall study the extent to which the products it offers are available and used by companies that export services and related goods.
 
The Bank must also implement policies to accept: (1) electronic documents whenever possible, including copies of bills of lading, certifications, and compliance documents; and (2) electronic payments in all of its programs.
 
If the Bank issues any report to Congress or any congressional committee containing accounting information that is not prepared using generally accepted accounting principles (GAAPs), the Bank must issue a second report with the same accounting information prepared using GAAPs.
 
The Bank is made lender of last resort to privately owned foreign applicants (other than financial institutions), which must first try to obtain competitive financing for the transaction in question without support from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation or the Small Business Administration.
 
Bank directors who are neither Chairman nor Vice Chairman of the Board shall constitute the Board's Audit Committee.
 
The President of the United States (U.S. President) must report to specified congressional committees on Bank programs that may be fully or partially privatized.
 
The Bank's Inspector General is directed to audit the Bank's portfolio risk management procedures, including its implementation of the duties assigned to the Chief Risk Officer (whose position is established by this Act).
 
The Bank must retain at least 30% of total net earnings as a provision for possible losses.
 
Two terms is made the term limit for any Bank President.
 
The U.S. President must propose to Congress a strategy to pursue with other major exporting countries, over a 10-year period, elimination of all subsidized export-financing programs, tied aid, export credits, and all other forms of government-supported export subsidies. This shall also involve negotiations specifically with countries that are not members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to bring them into a multilateral agreement establishing rules and limitations on officially supported export credits.
 
$130 billion is made the absolute limit, regardless of fiscal year, for the aggregate amount of outstanding Bank loans, guarantees, and insurance.
 
The general duties of the Bank's Chief Risk Officer are specified.
 
The Bank is required to develop and implement policies that incentivize transactions in which third parties, especially private sector lenders and exporters, share risks of loss with the Bank.
 
The Bank is reauthorized and extended through FY2019, as well as its authority to finance export sales of nonlethal defense articles or services whose primary end (dual) use will be for civilian purposes.
 
The Bank is directed to:
 
 
study its programs, products, and policies supporting exports from small business concerns and medium-sized enterprises in the United States, including those involving the implementation of the export credit insurance program, delegated lending authority, and direct Bank loans; and
 
determine the extent to which its policies adequately meet the needs of small business concerns and medium-sized enterprises in obtaining Bank financing to support jobs in the United States through exports.
 
 
The denial of funding is continued through FY2019 with respect to the Bank's Supplemental Guidelines for High Carbon Intensity Projects.
 
The figure of $10 million is increased to $25 million, subject to annual adjustments for inflation, in cases where:
 
 
the Bank seeks to ensure that U.S. insurance companies are accorded a fair and open competitive opportunity to provide insurance for transactions involving a long-term loan or guarantee of this minimum amount,
 
Bank procedures for public disclosure of environmental assessments and mandatory supplemental environmental reports apply to any transaction involving a project for which long-term support from the Bank is requested in at least this amount, or 
 
it is the sense of Congress that Bank policies and procedures should not prohibit small business specialists from approving applications for working capital loans, guarantees, and insurance in support of exports which have a value less than this amount.
 

action_date: 2015-10-27
text: 

Export-Import Bank Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2015

 
TITLE I--TAXPAYER PROTECTION PROVISIONS AND INCREASED ACCOUNTABILITY 
 
(Sec. 101) This bill amends the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 to set at $135 billion, for each of FY2015-FY2019, the authorized aggregate amount of loans, guarantees, and insurance the Export-Import Bank may have outstanding at any time.
 
If the rate at which borrowing entities are in default on a payment obligation (default rate) is 2% or more for a quarter, the Bank may not exceed the amount of loans, guarantees, and insurance outstanding on the last day of that quarter until the default rate becomes less than 2%. 
 
(Sec. 102) The Bank shall build to and hold in reserve, to protect against future losses, at least 5% of its aggregate amount of disbursed and outstanding loans, guarantees, and insurance.
 
(Sec. 103) This bill amends the Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2012 (EIBRA) to require the Government Accountability Office's quadrennial review of the adequacy of the design and effectiveness of the Bank's fraud controls to include review of the Bank's compliance with these controls.
 
(Sec. 104) An Office of Ethics is established within the Bank to recommend administrative actions to establish or enforce standards of official conduct.
 
(Sec. 105) A Chief Risk Officer of the Bank is established to oversee all issues relating to risk within the Bank.
 
(Sec. 106) A Risk Management Committee is also established to:
 
 
oversee periodic stress testing on the entire Bank portfolio and the monitoring of industry, geographic, and obligor exposure levels; and 
 
review all required reports on the Bank's default rate. 
 
 
(Sec. 107) The Bank's Inspector General shall conduct an audit or evaluation of the Bank's portfolio risk management procedures, including its implementation of the duties assigned to the Chief Risk Officer.
 
(Sec. 108) The Bank may establish a pilot program under which it may enter into contracts and other arrangements to share risks associated with its provision of guarantees, insurance, or credit, or participation in the extension of credit.
 
 The aggregate amount of liability the Bank may transfer through risk-sharing under a contract or other arrangement may not exceed $1 billion, nor a total of $10 billion during a fiscal year.
 
TITLE II--PROMOTION OF SMALL BUSINESS EXPORTS 
 
(Sec. 201) This bill directs the Bank to: 
 
 
increase from 20% to 25% of its lending authority the amount made available to finance direct exports by small business concerns, and 
 
include in its annual report to Congress a report on its programs for U.S. businesses with less than $250 million in annual sales. 
 
 
TITLE III--MODERNIZATION OF OPERATIONS
 
(Sec. 301) This bill requires the Bank to implement policies to accept electronic payments and transaction documents.
 
(Sec. 302) The Bank's authority to use a portion of its surplus to update its information technology systems shall extend through FY2019.
 
TITLE IV--GENERAL PROVISIONS 
 
(Sec. 401) The bill reauthorizes through FY2019 the Bank, the Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee, and authority for dual use exports (of nonlethal defense articles or services primarily for civilian use).
 
(Sec. 402) The principal amounts of medium-term financing by the Bank shall be limited to $25 million.
 
The bill increases from a minimum of $10 million to a minimum of $25 million the amounts of:
 
 
long-term loans or loan guarantees the Bank shall seek to ensure that U.S. insurance companies have a fair and open competitive opportunity to insure in connection with any transaction for which the loan or guarantee is provided, 
 
working capital export loans and guarantees to small businesses, and 
 
long-term support for projects to which certain procedures apply regarding the potential beneficial and adverse environmental effects of goods and services for which direct lending and guarantee support is requested.
 
 
If the long-term support for projects subject to environmental effects consideration is less than $25 million, the minimum threshold shall be the one established pursuant to international agreements, including the Common Approaches for Officially Supported Export Credits and Environmental and Social Due Diligence, as adopted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Council on June 28, 2012, and the risk-management framework ("Equator Principles") adopted by financial institutions for determining, assessing, and managing environmental and social risk in projects.
 
TITLE V--OTHER MATTERS
 
(Sec. 501) This bill prohibits the Bank from:
 
 
denying an application for financing based solely on the industry, sector, or business that the application concerns; or 
 
promulgating or implementing policies that discriminate against an application based solely on the industry, sector, or business that the application concerns. 
 
 
These prohibitions apply only to applications for Bank financing for projects concerning the exploration, development, production, or export of energy sources and the generation or transmission of electrical power, or combined heat and power, regardless of the energy source involved.
 
(Sec. 502) The EIBRA is amended to require the President instead of the Department of the Treasury to initiate and pursue negotiations to end export credit financing. 
 
The President shall propose to Congress a strategy to pursue with other major exporting countries, including Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) members and non-OECD members, to eliminate over a 10-year period subsidized export-financing programs, tied aid, export credits, and all other forms of government-supported export subsidies.
 
(Sec. 503) The Bank shall study the extent to which products it offers are available and used by companies that export information and communications technology services and related goods.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2015-10-29
text: Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 282.
action_date: 2015-10-28
text: Received in the Senate. Read the first time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under Read the First Time.
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 313 - 118 (Roll no. 576). (text: CR H7217-7219)
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: Passed/agreed to in House: On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 313 - 118 (Roll no. 576).(text: CR H7217-7219)
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: Considered as unfinished business. (consideration: CR H7243-7244)
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS - The Chair put the question on passage of the bill, and by voice vote announced that the noes had prevailed. Ms. Maxine Waters (CA) demanded the yeas and nays, and the Chair postponed further proceedings on passage of the bill until later in the legislative day.
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: On motion to recommit Failed by voice vote.
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: WITHDRAWAL OF DEMAND FOR YEAS AND NAYS - Mr. Hensarling asked unanimous consent to withdraw his demand for the yeas and nays on the motion to recommit H.R. 597, to the end that the motion to recommit be rejected on the basis of the earlier voice vote. Agreed to without objection.
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: POSTPONED ROLL CALL VOTE - The Chair put the question on the motion to recommit and by voice vote announced that the noes had prevailed. Mr. Hensarling demanded the yeas and nays and pursuant to a previous order of the House, the Chair postponed further proceedings on the question of adopting the motion to recommit until a time to be announced.
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: The previous question on the motion to recommit was ordered without objection. (consideration: CR H7230)
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: DEBATE - The House proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Norton motion to recommit, pending reservation of a point of order. Subsequently, the reservation of a point of order was withdrawn.
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: Ms. Norton moved to recommit to Financial Services. (consideration: CR H7229-7230)
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: The previous question was ordered pursuant to the rule. (consideration: CR H7229)
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: DEBATE - The House proceeded with one hour of debate on H.R. 597.
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: Considered under the provisions of H. Res. 450. (consideration: CR H7217-7231)
action_date: 2015-10-27
text: ORDER OF PROCEDURE - Mr. Collins (GA) asked unanimous consent that the question of adoption of a motion to recommit on H.R. 597 may be postponed as though under clause 8, rule XX. Agreed to without objection.
action_date: 2015-01-28
text: Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
action_date: 2015-01-28
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR E129)
action_date: 2015-01-28
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2015-01-28
text: Introduced in House