HOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING
For questions on the note below, please contact the Delta Strategy Group team.
On March 18, the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions held a hearing entitled, “Oversight of the Export-Import Bank.” The witness in the hearing was President and Chairman of the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank John Jovanovic, with his testimony here.
Below are several key takeaways from the hearing prepared by Delta Strategy Group,
Key Takeaways
- Chairman Davidson (R-OH) outlined Project Vault as a response to U.S. overdependence on unreliable supply chains, emphasizing its role in de-risking critical mineral access and strengthening domestic production through a market-driven framework supported by public and private capital. He stated how Project Vault brings together ten billion dollars in EXIM debt financing paired with nearly two billion dollars in private sector capital, designed to function as a shock absorber for U.S. manufacturers by providing access to a strategic reserve of critical raw materials outside of the traditional defense procurement framework. Chairman Davidson stated that Project Vault operates within a distinctly U.S. dynamic framework that deliberately avoids centralizing decision making, instead listening to market needs and providing a concrete tool to de-risk critical mineral supply chains while generating a real demand signal for domestic production, with the $1.4 billion letter of interest for Graphite One in Ohio cited as a tangible early example of EXIM stepping into this more strategic and prominent role.
- Chairman Davidson noted that Congress created the China and Transformational Exports Program (CTEP) in 2019 and expressed strong support for its reauthorization this year. He further emphasized that addressing China’s disregard for trade commitments, including those made under the World Trade Organization (WTO), requires coordinated pressure through multilateral forums such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Paris Club, and that the administration is giving EXIM an increasingly prominent role in supporting key strategic initiatives from artificial intelligence (AI) exports to critical minerals projects.
- Multiple Members highlighted that the U.S. faces a growing competitive challenge from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
- Jovanovic highlighted that countering adversarial monopolies on critical minerals processing and strengthening domestic supply chains for the U.S. industrial base are now central priorities for the bank under the current administration. He cited the $27 million direct loan to 6K Additive in Pennsylvania as the first transaction he approved as Chairman, a project that expanded domestic production and processing of critical metals used in aerospace and defense manufacturing, as an early and concrete example of the bank’s sharpened focus on securing the critical materials that underpin U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. He further noted that the resulting deindustrialization from years of unfair foreign competition has weakened both the economic security and the employment base of the U.S., making EXIM’s role in leveling that playing field urgent.
- Jovanovic outlined Project Vault as an initiative to establish the first-ever U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve focused exclusively on non-defense manufacturers. He stated that Project Vault is designed with one clear goal: ensuring that U.S. manufacturers and exporters can absorb supply chain shocks and shortages of the critical raw materials needed to power the U.S. economy and everyday life, with supply chains driven entirely by market demand and the needs of manufacturers large and small across the country. Jovanovic emphasized that Project Vault represents a broader transformation in EXIM’s identity and purpose, from a traditional export credit agency into a strategic economic tool that brings together public and private capital to position the U.S. to win the economic competition of the twenty-first century.
- Jovanovic framed EXIM reauthorization as a direct national security and economic competitiveness imperative, noting that U.S. companies today compete in markets where adversaries deploy massive state financing, subsidies, and industrial policy to capture foreign industries and crowd out U.S. exporters. Jovanovic called for bipartisan support around EXIM’s reauthorization, noting that a unified signal from Congress sends an important message to trading partners, and emphasized that CTEP should be included as part of any reauthorization package. He highlighted that the PRC provided exporters with over twenty-three billion dollars in medium and long-term loans in 2024 alone, quadruple what EXIM provided to U.S. firms, and that this imbalance has contributed directly to the deindustrialization and supply chain vulnerabilities the U.S. is now working to reverse.
- Jovanovic highlighted CTEP as a critical instrument Congress created to help EXIM directly counter China’s export credit advantage and expressed strong support for its reauthorization this year as an essential component of the bank’s broader competitive toolkit. He stated that under President Trump’s direction, EXIM has reorganized around four strategic priorities, expanding market access, ensuring U.S. energy technologies reach global markets, strengthening supply chain security, and leading the industries of the future, and that the bank’s expanding role in critical minerals, AI exports, nuclear power, and advanced manufacturing reflects a deliberate and necessary transformation of EXIM from a traditional export credit agency into a frontline instrument of U.S. economic and national security strategy.
- Jovanovic clarified that Project Vault’s public-private structure is fundamentally and deliberately market-driven, meaning that the companies themselves determine what materials they need, at what price, at what grades, and even where those materials come from, with EXIM’s role being to facilitate that process rather than direct it. Jovanovic emphasized that this design feature is intentional, placing decision-making authority with the market rather than with the government, and that the initiative is being driven by some of the largest blue-chip companies manufacturing in the U.S., with all associated contracts expected to reflect the highest industry standards throughout.
- Representative Kim (R-CA) raised the question of whether EXIM’s purchasing activity for the critical minerals stockpile risks creating price surges and worsening existing shortages, a concern Jovanovic stated was central to how Project Vault was designed from the outset. Jovanovic noted that the demand-driven framework was constructed to avoid overriding clear market signals, ensuring that the government’s participation facilitates rather than distorts market activity. He further identified the midstream segment, refining, processing, and midstream handling, as the real chokepoint in the critical minerals supply chain, and stated that Project Vault is specifically designed to catalyze new projects in that space, addressing both current market realities today and future supply chain challenges.
- Representative Nunn (R-IA) noted that while significant progress has been made on the critical minerals front, including Congressional efforts to leverage the Defense Production Act with the White House to secure critical agricultural and manufacturing inputs such as phosphorus and potassium, China continues to sit at the other end of those export controls. He raised the question of how Project Vault shields U.S. companies from PRC supply chain disruptions. Jovanovic stated that unlike a conventional static strategic reserve, Project Vault is dynamic and demand-driven, functioning as an investment-grade market actor that actively creates new resource opportunities and midstream refining and processing capacity in the U.S. He further outlined that companies are already approaching EXIM through Project Vault to offtake from U.S. mines and toll domestic facilities, and that as manufacturers replenish their allocations to Project Vault, they will be directed toward U.S. sources, creating a self-reinforcing demand signal for domestic critical mineral production.
- Representative Ogles (R-TN) raised the concern that when EXIM supports agricultural projects abroad to build supply chain resilience or compete against China, the bank must also be tracking the downstream impact on U.S. markets, the price of goods, and ultimately the U.S. worker, framing the U.S. worker as the fundamental priority of the taxpayer’s investment. Jovanovic affirmed that supporting U.S. jobs is the core measure against which every EXIM initiative must be evaluated.
- Jovanovic highlighted that agricultural competitiveness has emerged as a new and urgent priority for the bank under the current administration. Jovanovic noted that the U.S. inherited a large agricultural trade deficit at the start of the Trump administration and that, through coordinated efforts, the figure has already been reduced. He further stated that for the first time, EXIM is actively working with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to harmonize their respective tools, with the goal of ensuring that U.S. farmers have the support they need to get their agricultural products to every corner of the globe and open up new markets.
- Representative Foster (D-IL) raised concerns that Project Vault exposes the taxpayer to both commodity risk and technological risk, citing rapid advancements in battery technology as a potential disruptor to critical mineral demand. Jovanovic clarified that subscribing companies bear the commodity risk themselves through repurchase agreements at the original acquisition price, meaning the taxpayer carries no direct commodity risk, and emphasized that EXIM remains sharply focused on supply chain resiliency. He acknowledged that the residual risk of a company going bankrupt remains, and that counterparty creditworthiness is a key safeguard.
- Ranking Member Waters (D-CA) and Subcommittee Ranking Member Beatty (D-OH) raised questions about spending limits, ethics, and anti-corruption provisions in Project Vault contracts, and President Trump’s communications with African countries regarding minerals. Jovanovic responded that EXIM holds a charter mandate to engage in sub-Saharan Africa and that Project Vault’s design places decision-making authority with the companies and the market rather than the government. He framed African engagement as a core part of EXIM’s existing mandate and an integral component of the broader effort to build resilient and diversified critical mineral supply chains that reduce U.S. dependence on adversary-controlled sources.