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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Sanders Pro-Labor Amendment Receives Surprising 135 Votes |
Current rating: 0 |
by Congressman Bernie Sanders
(No verified email address) |
01 May 2002
Modified: 10:52:31 PM |
Momentum is Building to Reform Corporate Welfare in Export-Import Bank
Congressman Tim Johnson SHOULD have voted for this. Did he? |
WASHINGTON - May 1 - Congressman Bernie Sanders, Ranking Member of the International Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee, said today that opposition is growing to the current policies of the Export-Import Bank and that an increasing number of Members want to see fundamental changes in the way that agency is run. The Sanders amendment, which would have prohibited companies from receiving future Ex-Im subsidies if they laid off more American workers than they did at their plants overseas. That amendment received a surprising 135 votes, including a majority of Democrats.
Sanders said, "The American people are sick and tired of the largest and most profitable corporations in this country getting billions in corporate welfare while they lay off millions of American workers and move their jobs to China, Vietnam and other poor countries where workers are paid as little as 20 cents an hour."
Included below are some of the arguments Sanders made on the floor of the House of Representatives today:
"Eighty percent of Ex-Im money goes to Fortune 500 companies including Boeing, General Electric, Catepillar Inc., Mobil Oil, Westinghouse, AT&T, Motorola, Lucent Technologies, Enron, IBM , FedEx, General Motors, Halliburton, Siemans, Raytheon, and United Technologies. Amazingly, these companies are some of the biggest job cutters in the country."
"General Electric has received over $2.5 billion in direct loans and loan guarantees from the Ex-Im Bank. And what was the result? From 1985-1995 GE reduced its workforce from 243,000 to 150,000. In fact, taking the Export-Import loans GE announced to the world that its goal was to lay off American workers and move the jobs to Third World countries."
"General Motors has received over $500 million in direct loans and loan guarantees from the Ex-Im Bank. The result? GM has shrunk its U.S. workforce from 559,000 to 314,000."
"Motorola has received almost $500 million in direct loans and loan subsidies from the Ex-Im Bank, yet its total workforce has been reduced to only 56 percent American workers."
Sanders concluded, "Either the Ex-Im is reformed to protect American workers or it should be ended." |
See also:
http://bernie.house.gov/
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