Senate Holds Hearing on Trump’s Ex-Im Bank Nominees

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tomorrow the Senate Banking Committee will hold hearings on President Trump’s nominees to the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank), the U.S. export credit agency. Prior to it lacking board quorum, Ex-Im Bank provided an average of almost $6 billion annually to fossil fuel projects from 2013 to 2015 – 60 times the amount it spent on clean energy projects. The nominees include former New Jersey Congressman Scott Garrett, well-known for his bigoted views and a voting record disparaging of the poor and the environment; former Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus, who faced insider-trading allegations while in Congress; Kimberly Reed, who held high level positions at the Treasury Department and Lehman Brothers in the lead up to the financial crisis; and Claudia Slacik, who is invested in Exxon, a recipient of Ex-Im Bank finance, and many other energy companies.

In response to the hearing, Kate DeAngelis, international policy analyst at Friends of the Earth, issued the following statement:

The Export Import Bank needs leaders who will improve transparency and accountability while ending the bank’s financing of harmful projects, including all fossil fuels. Trump’s nominees are not that; they are a hateful, greedy bunch who prioritize their own self-interest above all else.

Expert contact: Kate DeAngelis, (202) 222-0747, [email protected]
Communications contact: Patrick Davis (202) 222-0744, [email protected]