Congress expands export bank to finance domestic manufacturing—with hidden loan-loss loopholes

What it does

The Make More in America Act of 2026 expands the Export-Import Bank's authority and funding to finance domestic manufacturing and technology development in strategic industries—semiconductors, batteries, robotics, aerospace, quantum computing, and others—to compete with China and create U.S. jobs. The bill increases the Bank's lending cap from current levels to $205 billion (fiscal years 2027–2033), establishes a new "Make More in America Program" offering loans, guarantees, and grants to manufacturers, and requires workforce protections including prevailing wages and union neutrality for larger firms.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core function is to dramatically expand the Export-Import Bank's role in financing domestic manufacturing and technology development, framed as a competitive response to China. It is fundamentally an industrial policy instrument, not a traditional export-credit mechanism.

What the text implies

• The bill allows the Bank to exclude failed loans from default-rate calculations (Section 8), creating a moral-hazard mechanism where poor investment decisions can be hidden from public accountability by reclassifying them as strategic.
• The Investment Committee (Section 8) includes six Cabinet secretaries, the USTR, SBA, and six members of Congress, but the bill does not specify how conflicts of interest are managed or how decisions are made—potentially enabling coordinated industrial policy without transparent deliberation.

The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.

Who stands to gain

semiconductor manufacturers; battery and advanced energy companies; aerospace and defense contractors