WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2019 – The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) today sent a letter to House Finance Committee members, urging them vote “yes” to approve Rep. Maxine Waters’ (D-Calif.) legislation that would create and sustain U.S. manufacturing jobs.
The legislation, the United States Export Finance Agency Act of 2019 (H.R. 4863), would sustain U.S. manufacturing and other strategic industries and improve the balance of trade between the U.S. and high export nations by reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank for the next 10 years.
The finance committee is scheduled to take up the legislation Tuesday, Oct. 29.
The Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) is one of the few U.S. institutions that actually supports U.S. exports and jobs by providing vital loan guarantees for the sale of U.S. goods and services to international markets.
“American jobs depend upon a fully functioning Ex-Im Bank with a fully staffed board of directors to provide vital financing for the export of U.S. made products,” IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr., said in the correspondence to committee members. “Under the Bank’s current charter, projects which require more than $10 million in financing must be approved by the Ex-ImBank board of directors. However, the lack of a quorum on the board in recent years has crippled the Ex-Im Bank’s ability to support U.S. manufacturers and workers, particularly in the aerospace industry, one of the last sectors in which the U.S. enjoys a positive balance of trade with the rest of the world.”
The Ex-Im Bank authorized only $3.3 billion in export credit in fiscal year 2018, down from $20 billion in fiscal year 2014, the last year the bank was fully operational with a fully staffed board. Consequently, the bank estimates it supported a mere 33,000 U.S. jobs in fiscal year 2018, a fraction of the 164,000 American jobs the bank supported in fiscal year 2014.
The IAM represents 600,000 active and retired members in the North American aerospace, defense, airline, manufacturing, transportation, woodworking, the federal sector and other industries. Visit goIAM.org for more information.
