GOP proposes ending Export-Import Bank

"The Export-Import Bank has always been a bad idea and needs to be shut down," Amash said Thursday in a statement to The Hill. "Export subsidies, like those provided by the Export-Import Bank, serve only to enrich well-connected special interests at the expense of the rest of the country."

The bill says that export subsidies give advantages to some companies — mostly large companies — over their domestic competition and other sectors of the economy. Critics of the bank have noted for years that much of the bank exists to help Boeing export aircraft around the world.

The bill also states that international trade finance is already "well developed" and supplied by the private sector.

Under the bill, the bank could not take new applications for export finance assistance 30 days after the bill becomes law. The organization could not renew or enter into contracts to extend credit after 12 months.

It would then be abolished three years after the bill becomes law, and any remaining authorized activities of the bank would be handled by the Treasury Department, which would be tasked with winding down all bank operations and delegating any needed authorities to other government agencies.

Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) are co-sponsors of the bill.