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FACT CHECK✒ EDITORIALABSURDITY:
Export-Import Bank: Expanded Use of Delinquent Federal Debt Data Could Better Mitigate Credit Risk
Filed 58m ago · Via GAO · The Buffoon Desk
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Sneaky
Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0
Photo: Theklan · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
A GAO review found the Export-Import Bank's loan guarantee underwriting does not consistently screen applicants for delinquent federal nontax debt, which by law makes them ineligible. The Bank checks such debt before Board-approved transactions but not for those cleared by staff with individually delegated authority.
Since 2023, EXIM has relied on a third-party vendor database that can flag some federal tax delinquency but not nontax debt like defaulted student loans, the exact category the law cares about. Free government tools, the System for Award Management and the Do Not Pay system, could catch that debt, but EXIM has no policy requiring their use. GAO recommended EXIM start using them; the Bank agreed.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.
✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK
EXIM is paying a vendor to watch the wrong door while the free door, the one with the actual rule painted on it, sits unlocked and unattended right next to it. The Bank agreed with the recommendation, which is the easy part; agreeing costs nothing and fixes nothing by itself. Taxpayers backing these loan guarantees might reasonably want the free background check run before the guarantee, not the more expensive one that checks for something else.
