Lawmakers and business leaders promote manufacturing subsidies in visit to Dickinson

Aug. 17—DICKINSON — On Monday, North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, a member of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, hosted Export-Import Bank Director and former Congressman Spencer Bachus, R-AL, in Dickinson for a round-table discussion aimed at supporting job expansion in export opportunities for American businesses.

Cramer praised the Ex-Im Bank for what it does to support jobs and manufacturing in North Dakota.

"The bank ensures businesses in our state and throughout the country can compete on a level playing field in the global marketplace," Cramer stated in a press release. "It provides critical financing to American exporters to ship our goods, innovation, and freedom across the world while supporting small businesses and jobs at home."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

established

the Ex-Im Bank by executive order in 1934 with a stated purpose of providing financial aid to support the exchange of commodities between the U.S. and other countries. It finances global trade projects with taxpayer guaranteed loans that private lenders view as too risky. According to the organization's

website,

the mission has expanded to include supporting American jobs.

During this visit Cramer and Bachus toured the Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing Dickinson facility, which employs more than 300 people. The plant supplies wire harnesses, fiber optic cables and repair parts for both commercial and military aircraft. Some of these aircraft are purchased by companies that utilize Ex-Im backed bank loans to participate in the global marketplace.

Kristin Hedger, Vice President of Business Development at KMM, said she appreciates Cramer for stepping to the forefront of this issue.

"We value the opportunity to show, firsthand, the opportunities afforded to our KMM team. North Dakotans contribute to the elite aerospace supply chain on a global scale and the loans issued through the Ex-Im bank," Hedger said. "We are grateful to Senator Cramer for his leadership in retaining authorization of Ex-Im that is so critical to jobs in this community."

Yet, some of Cramer's Senate colleagues such as Ted Cruz, R-TX, and Pat Toomey, R-PA, have denounced the program as "corporate welfare" for politically connected industries.

"There is no reason that taxpayers should have to back domestic financing when we live in a highly developed market economy in which promising businesses have access to capital on competitive terms," Toomey

said

earlier this year.

From 2014 to 2018 the bank was essentially closed, as conservative members of Congress suspended its ability to offer loans. It was reauthorized by Congress and President Trump in 2018, then expanded in

April

by the Biden Administration through their "Make More in America" initiative.