News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On March 18th, President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) John Jovanovic testified before the House Financial Services Committee during a hearing entitled, “Oversight of the Export-Import Bank.” The hearing focused on the Bank’s reauthorization and the importance of maintaining EXIM’s ability to be a frontline economic tool to revitalize American industry, strengthen our supply chains, and ensure American workers and exporters can compete around the world.

During his testimony, Chairman Jovanovic emphasized that EXIM is carrying out President Trump’s vision of reindustrializing America, securing our supply chains, and ensuring our economy works for American workers and American companies large and small alike. Additionally, he focused on EXIM’s core mission and the need for long-term reauthorization to provide certainty for American businesses, large and small, operating in international markets.

“Simply put: EXIM is putting American workers, American technology and American manufacturing first,” said Chairman Jovanovic. “Reauthorizing and strengthening EXIM will ensure the next generation of global industry is built with American workers, American technology, and American leadership.”

As Congress considers legislation to reauthorize EXIM, the Bank remains a diligent steward of American taxpayer dollars. EXIM conducts rigorous due diligence to ensure when undertaking a project, we are putting American exporters first. Since 1992, EXIM has returned $9.7 billion to the U.S. Department of the Treasury to help pay down the U.S. debt and nearly 90% of EXIM's total transactions directly benefit U.S. small business exporters, ensuring that America's entrepreneurial backbone has access to the financing tools needed to compete and win in global markets.

View the full hearing here.

You can read his full opening remarks below:

Chairman Davidson, Ranking Member Beatty, and distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. It is an honor to appear before you as President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

I am grateful to Congress for equipping EXIM with the tools necessary to execute our mission to support American jobs, and I look forward to working with this Committee to reauthorize the Bank so it can continue operating at the scale today’s economic competition demands.

EXIM is one of America’s frontline economic tools – carrying out President Trump’s vision of reindustrializing America, securing our supply chains, and ensuring our economy works for American workers and American companies large and small alike.

Today, American companies compete in markets where competitors deploy massive state financing, subsidies, and industrial policy to capture strategic industries. This has led to weakened economic security for the United States and job losses across our country due to de-industrialization.

The United States cannot afford to sit on the sidelines. President Franklin D. Roosevelt founded EXIM in 1934 to support American workers and companies, large and small, export the goods, technologies, and services that helped America become the largest economy in the world. Ninety-two years later, our founding mission resonates stronger than ever.

That is why my team and I have set out to revitalize EXIM – delivering results for exporters and manufacturers operating across America and helping them once again win all around the world. A key part of that effort is expanding export finance access for small and medium sized companies by working with community lenders across the country so more Main Street businesses can have access to capital, reach global markets, and grow jobs in their communities.

Under my leadership, and with President Trump’s direction, we have focused the Bank around four priorities: expanding market access for American exporters, ensuring American energy molecules and technologies reach every corner of the globe, strengthening our supply chain security, and ensuring the United States leads the industries that will define the future – from artificial intelligence to advanced manufacturing and space technology. All the while helping support well-paying jobs across our country.

I also would like to note that, in response to concerns several Members raised with me last year, we have taken concrete steps to improve employee morale and increase competitiveness by clarifying strategic priorities, streamlining internal processes so Letters of Interest translate into real transactions, and improving reporting structures so our team can process applications more efficiently.

Simply put: EXIM is putting American workers, American technology, and American manufacturing first.

Supporting American manufacturing is central to that mission.

The first project I approved as Chairman was a $27 million direct loan to 6K Additive in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. While this may seem like a small transaction, EXIM’s financing crucially expanded domestic production and processing of critical metals used in aerospace and defense manufacturing. Projects like these help directly counter our adversaries’ monopoly on critical minerals processing and strengthen domestic supply chains for our industrial base.

It was executed under EXIM’s Make More in America Initiative – created under the last administration – and represents the first EXIM transaction coordinated with the Defense Production Act Title III program.

We are also supporting American leadership in emerging industries.

Earlier this year, EXIM approved financing for CesiumAstro, a Texas-based manufacturer producing advanced satellite communications systems. Their technologies strengthen American satellite networks and support more resilient defense communication systems. That project will generate nearly 400 high-quality American jobs while strengthening the United States’ position in a strategically important sector.

Through initiatives like our American AI Exports Program, we are ensuring U.S. companies lead the global race to deploy next-generation technologies that will define the future economy.

EXIM is also supporting the export of American energy technologies – from LNG projects along the Gulf Coast to advanced nuclear power and fuel processing. These projects help foster lasting economic partnerships with key allies based on energy security, while supporting jobs and investment here at home.

Another important initiative is Project Vault.

On EXIM’s 92nd anniversary earlier this year, I had the honor of joining President Trump in the Oval Office to announce this nearly $12 billion project to establish the U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve.

Project Vault is designed with one clear goal: ensuring that American manufacturers – and the exporters in your districts – can absorb supply chain shocks and shortages of critical raw materials needed to manufacture all that powers our economy and everyday lives.

It is a uniquely American solution that brings together private capital alongside government financing to secure supply chains, driven entirely by market demand and the needs of manufacturers, large and small, across the country.

More broadly, EXIM today is no longer simply an export credit agency.

It is a strategic economic tool – bringing together capital solutions which strengthen America’s industrial base, enhance national security, and ensure the United States wins the economic competition of the 21st century.

It is important to note that we are doing so in a way that serves U.S. taxpayers.

Since the current government accounting rules were introduced, EXIM has returned nearly $10 billion to the U.S. Treasury to help pay down the debt, all while maintaining a default rate lower than the average private sector lender.

And we are just getting started.

For the first time in ten years, EXIM is projected to fully repay its appropriation. Even further, EXIM is on track to authorize more transactions and support more U.S. jobs than in any year in its 92-year history.

Our current pipeline includes more than $71 billion in active transactions spanning critical minerals, civil nuclear energy, and advanced manufacturing.

These projects alone are expected to support more than 45,000 American jobs.

To sustain this momentum, I am asking Congress to support three provisions in this year’s reauthorization.

First, reauthorize the Bank – and the mission-critical China and Transformational Exports Program – for ten years.

Second, return the Bank to best practices for risk management which allowed us to operate without the risk of shutting down for the first 81 years of our existence.

And third, provide the hiring flexibility necessary to recruit the specialized expertise required to execute increasingly complex transactions that support American industry and national security.

From our founding under President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the thousands of jobs we support today, EXIM has always existed to support the American worker.

Reauthorizing and strengthening EXIM will ensure the next generation of global industry is built with American workers, American technology, and American leadership.

And it will ensure the United States remains the partner of choice for countries seeking growth, modernization, and trusted economic partnership.

Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.

ABOUT EXIM:

As the United States government’s official export credit agency, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) supports American jobs by facilitating U.S. exports. As an independent agency, EXIM plays a critical role in supporting economic growth, securing critical supply chains, and ensuring American businesses are given a fighting chance. To achieve this mission, EXIM offers financing including export credit insurance, working capital guarantees, loan guarantees, and direct loans. Learn more at www.exim.gov.

###