Ways and Means
Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., House Financial Services Committee
Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and House Budget Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga.,
all oppose the Export-Import Bank renewal
WASHINGTON —
The charter for the Export-Import Bank of the United States expires at midnight
Tuesday, delivering at least a short-term victory for fiscal conservatives and
activists who targeted the 81-year-old institution as a free market distortion.
"This is a
small step toward renewing a competitive free-market economy and arresting the
rise of the progressive welfare state and the cronyism connected to it,"
said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, who
had led the effort to end the bank. "Now the challenge for supporters of a
competitive free-market economy is to make sure Ex-Im stays expired."
Congress failed
to address the charter's expiration before they adjourned for the July 4
recess, but the bank's supporters say they will seek to renew the charter
retroactively next month. The relatively obscure bank is an independent agency
that acts as the export credit agency for the U.S. government. Ex-Im, as it is
commonly known, helps finance the foreign purchases of U.S. goods for private
businesses and disproportionately supports major U.S. companies Boeing,
Caterpillar and General Electric.
In recent years
it has come under increased fire by conservative lawmakers and activists who
label it corporate welfare. They want the bank to expire and slowly wind down
its current loan contracts.
There are
indicators the institution still has support in Congress despite conservative
opposition.
A symbolic test
vote in the Senate in early June showed 65 senators, a super-majority, in
support of reauthorizing the charter. A 2012 House vote to reauthorize the
charter passed overwhelming, 330-93.
Since then,
however, the ranks of opponents have grown. Top GOP lawmakers, including House
Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., Ways and Means Committee Chairman
Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., oppose
its renewal.
Americans for
Prosperity, an influential conservative activist group affiliated with
billionaire GOP mega-donors Charles and David Koch, has led the outside effort
to end the bank, which has become a conservative litmus test in the 2016
presidential primary. Only one of the candidates, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.,
is actively working to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank.
Top business
lobbies, including the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, support reauthorizing the bank, as does President Obama.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., opposes Ex-Im, but says he would
not deny a supermajority of senators a vote to reauthorize it.
Ex-Im
supporters in the Senate are eyeing a must-pass piece of legislation, such as
an upcoming highway funding bill, to attach the bank's reauthorization and send
it to the House.
"We've
been expecting that it's going to get attached to something over in the Senate
and come over to the House and when it does, we'll deal with it. Until then, we
won't," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters before the
recess.
Boehner has
voiced concerns that an uncontrolled wind down of the bank could negatively
affect U.S. jobs, but he has promised Hensarling an open process on any bill
that includes Ex-Im language. Conservatives could try to block the
reauthorization with an amendment.
The divide has
put the GOP at odds with its traditional allies in the business community.
"Today is a day we were hoping to avoid," said Aric Newhouse of NAM.
"This is a critical blow for manufacturers," he said. "This is a
(problem) that Congress created for itself.
Don Nelson,
president of California-based ProGauge Technologies which uses Ex-Im to finance
business operations, had harsh words for conservatives. "They really have
no clue what they're doing," he said on a NAM conference call, "We're
just collateral damage for their ideology." Nelson serves on the bank's
advisory committee.
Democrats have
become some of Ex-Im's biggest defenders on Capitol Hill. "As soon as we
get back, the Republican leadership in both the Senate and the House (should)
put this on the floor and I am confident it would pass both houses," House
Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday. "We are undermining
thousands and thousands of jobs."
The expiration
of the charter does not affect Ex-Im's current obligations, but it prevents the
bank from authorizing any new transactions. The bank, if it remains expired,
will slowly conclude its work as it makes its way through existing loan
guarantees, some as long as 18 years from now. The bank currently has a $110
billion portfolio.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/06/30/export-import-bank-expiring-congress/29468333/
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