The Export-Import Bank sent $675 million to the Treasury in fiscal 2014, the beleaguered export credit agency announced Thursday.
“That we are able to support [businesses] while also helping to reduce the deficit is a bonus for taxpayers, and a testament to the hard work and risk management efforts of Ex-Im Bank’s staff,” Ex-Im Chairman Fred Hochberg said in announcing that the funds would go toward deficit reduction.
Ex-Im, which helps U.S. businesses with financing for exports, is under pressure from members of Congress, especially conservative Republicans, who view it as corporate welfare. Congress extended the bank’s charter in September until June, but its future is uncertain after that.
It’s a matter of controversy whether Ex-Im provides a benefit to taxpayers. Ex-Im’s credit programs are generally scored by the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan official budget scorekeeper, as generating profits for taxpayers. But the CBO also provides an alternative accounting measure that takes a broader view of the risks involved in Ex-Im’s credit programs that yields the result that the bank is a drain on taxpayers’ resources.
Ex-Im’s transfers to the Treasury were down from last year’s record $1.057 billion, according to the bank’s annual report.
