GE may move 500 jobs overseas as Congress spurns loan program

General Electric said Tuesday that it may move about 500 jobs overseas because Congress did not renew a government program that allows foreign companies to borrow money to buy U.S. products.

Congress did not approve authorization for the U.S. Export-Import Bank, forcing it to stop lending July 1. Foreign companies use the agency to buy expensive U.S. products when bank loans are unavailable.

As a result, GE says, 100 jobs from a Houston plant that makes gas turbines will move to Hungary and China in 2016. The Fairfield, Conn., industrial conglomerate says those countries have lending options in place for customers.

“We do not make today’s announcements lightly and in fact have done everything in our power to avoid making these moves at all. But Congress left us no choice when it failed to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank this summer,” said John Rice, GE’s vice chairman.

An additional 400 jobs could be created in France instead of at factories in South Carolina, Maine and New York if the company wins projects it is bidding on — worth a combined $11 billion.

The projects require export financing, and GE said it has reached agreement with the French export-credit agency to provide a line of credit for global power projects. GE said the credit line will initially support potential orders in international markets, including Indonesia.

To access the required export credit for customers of its aeroderivatives turbines, GE will move its final assembly from the U.S. to Hungary and China.

Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., a supporter of the Ex-Im Bank, said Republicans’ refusal to back the federal agency is taking a toll.

“This is not a political parlor game in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “They’ve run the numbers, and there’s nothing out there that even comes close to what they’ve been getting from Ex-Im for decades.”

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, tied GE’s shift to Europe for capital to its dispute with Connecticut officials over increased business taxes. He also cited GE CEO Jeff Immelt’s role as chairman of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

“It’s troubling that the head of President Obama’s jobs council is announcing GE is leaving Connecticut because the state’s taxes are too high and is choosing to send jobs overseas because U.S. taxpayer-provided subsidies are too low,” he said.

GE said in June that it’s considering moving its headquarters to a “more pro-business” state. But last month the company informed economic development officials in Texas that it dropped Dallas-Fort Worth from its search because of political opposition from Hensarling and Sen. Ted Cruz.

Fort Worth officials, including Mayor Betsy Price, had reached out to GE to pitch the city as a headquarters site. The company already employs more than 500 workers at a plant in far north Fort Worth that builds locomotives and mining equipment.

This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 4:30 PM with the headline "GE may move 500 jobs overseas as Congress spurns loan program."