Washington (April 15, 2026) – Senator John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, today reintroduced his bill to block the U.S. Export-Import (EXIM) Bank from giving loans to companies and individuals that are delinquent on repaying their tax debt.
“It makes no sense for the government to lend hard-earned money to businesses that fail to even repay their tax debt. My bill would help root out waste, fraud and abuse, and make sure our Export-Import Bank isn’t subsidizing companies that don’t play by the rules,” said Kennedy.
Background:
- The EXIM Bank currently requires every company applying for certain financing to self-certify that they do not have delinquent federal debt.
- However, a 2019 Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis uncovered billions of dollars in EXIM transactions involving companies that may have fraudulently applied for financing.
- From 2014 through 2016, System for Award Management (SAM) data flagged 32 U.S.-based companies for delinquent federal debt in the same month their EXIM transactions were authorized, despite the companies’ self-certification that they were not delinquent. The GAO estimated that these transactions totaled $1.7 billion.
Based on this information, the GAO and EXIM Bank agreed that the EXIM Bank should make use of available data to verify that companies do not have delinquent federal debt, rather than relying on the word of the companies that apply.
Kennedy’s bill would accomplish this by empowering the EXIM Bank to use SAM data and data-analytical approaches to detect potential delinquency and work with the Internal Revenue Service to confirm its findings.
Under Kennedy’s legislation, tax-delinquent companies would lose access to EXIM financing once delinquency is confirmed through SAM data and IRS consultation. The bill would also allow the President of the United States to waive this requirement if an entity’s work sufficiently affects U.S. interests.
Debt being repaid in a timely manner is not considered to be seriously delinquent federal debt according to the bill.
Full bill text is available here.
