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Unlike most other agencies, EXIM has a charter that expires. Congress must renew it periodically, or else the agency will permanently close. Its current charter expires at the end of 2026. Closing this New Deal-era legacy agency would be a conservative victory on anumber of fronts. It is also a winnable battle: Congress just needs to do nothing.

Conservatives have both foreign policy and economic reasons to oppose EXIM. EXIM hasa long history of providing financing for authoritarian governments in China, Russia, and the Middle East that often oppose U.S. foreign policy interests, and its deals often oppose U.S. economic interests. EXIM financing also harms domestic airlines. Many EXIM financing deals enable foreign staterun airlines to buy Boeing jets at a discount. These foreign airlines, subsidized by the U.S. government, then compete directly with US. airlines on international routes.

More recently, the Biden Administration has expanded EXIM’s mission to advance progressive policy goals, including limits on financing for projects that involve fossil fuels or contribute to climate change, preferential treatment for renewable energy projects, and quotas for projects that benefit women-owned and minority-owned businesses. All of these could raise EXIM’s default rates, putting taxpayer dollars at risk.

The strongest argument in EXIM’s favor is that it boosts U.S. exports by financing projects that would otherwise never receive financing. We now have evidence that this argument is false: EXIM does not finance additional exports; instead, it largely substitutes for other forms of export financing that would occur anyway.

EXIM’s authorization lapsed in 2014-2015 because of conservative opposition to renewing its charter. During this lapse, EXIM maintained its existing portfolio but was unable to take on new business. Boeing reported no trouble finding alternative financing and even reported record profits during EXIM’s lapse while working to fulfill a seven-year backlog of orders.”

EXIM boasts an extremely low default rate, but that is because of selection bias. EXIM overwhelmingly takes on low-risk projects that private banks would be happy to finance, although this admittedly could change somewhat with EXIM’s Biden-era mandates to finance climate and other policy-focused projects.

EXIM is also a textbook example of regulatory capture.

• Ithas along record of deals with authoritarian governments. • Itsubsidizes direct foreign competitors of domestic businesses.

• It has been hijacked by progressives to advance their climate and other preferred policies.