ATVM Loan Program Amendment

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, I am thankful the Senate is taking up the appropriations bills. The appropriations process is the only way citizens can truly hold their elected representatives accountable. It also allows the American people to see just what the priorities are for the Senate.

Through my votes upon appropriations bills, I have to decide which government programs to prioritize and which government programs need to be cut. These are tough choices, but Nebraskans sent me to Washington to make these hard decisions.

Again, I am hopeful that the Senate is taking up these bills and that we can make important spending decisions on behalf of the American people. That is why I am proud to join Senators Coats, Toomey, and Flake to submit an amendment that targets what I see is overspending in the Energy and Water appropriations bill.

This amendment would wind down the Department of Energy's troubled Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. The ATVM Program was designed to provide loans for businesses that produce fuel- efficient, advanced-technology vehicles and components in the United States. The program was created in 2007. In 2009, Congress appropriated $7.5 billion in subsidies to cover $25 billion in loans authorized under that program.

Unfortunately, as Senator Coats and Senator Toomey have pointed out, this program has struggled for many years. The record speaks for itself. Take Fisker Automotive as an example. In April of 2010, Fisker received a loan through the ATVM program for the purpose of producing two lines of plug-in hybrid vehicles at its plant in Wilmington, DE. In 2011, because Fisker was not meeting its performance targets, the DOE suspended its original loan of $529 million.

Unfortunately, $192 million in taxpayer dollars had already been loaned to the company. Fisker halted operations, and they filed for bankruptcy in November of 2013. The company's ATVM loan was sold at auction for $25 million and the DOE was able to recoup $28 million from an escrow account. However, this loan still resulted in a $139-million loss for taxpayers.

In February of 2014, Fisker's assets were auctioned to a Chinese manufacturer, Wanxiang, through the resulting bankruptcy proceedings. This was one of the many failures resulting from the ATVM Program.

In 2013, a Government Accountability Office report found few auto manufacturers and program applicants willing to participate in the program due to high costs and the limited benefits. As a result, the Secretary of Energy announced a number of changes to the ATVM Program in April of 2014. Not a single new loan has been approved since the announcement of these revisions.

This program is a clear example of waste. It reveals the dangers of allowing our government to pick winners and losers in the private sector. That is why I am here today to join Senators Coats and Toomey and Flake in offering an amendment that would prohibit new loan applications from being reviewed if they are not submitted by the date of this bill's enactment. Furthermore, our amendment would prohibit any loan credit subsidies after the end of fiscal year 2020. Through these provisions, we can responsibly wind down a very ineffective program.

Our national debt continues to grow, and it now exceeds $19 trillion. According to the March 2016 report of the Congressional Budget Office, annual deficits will exceed $1 trillion in 2022 and every year thereafter. This makes the need for commonsense provisions like ours all the more urgent. We simply cannot afford to continue spending money on programs that are not effective.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this sensible amendment when it is brought up for a vote.
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