House votes to reauthorize Ex-Im Bank

A group of House lawmakers from across the political aisle voted successfully Tuesday to re-open the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

   A group of House lawmakers successfully forced a vote on Tuesday to reauthorize the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
   According to news reports Tuesday evening, the final vote was 313-118, with many Democrats and moderate Republicans supporting the bank’s reauthorization.
   In mid-October, Congressmen Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn.; Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.; and Chris Collins, R-N.Y., filed a rarely used “discharge petition” to allow House consideration of their bill to reauthorize and reform the Ex-Im Bank. The bank shut down in June when a group of lawmakers successfully blocked its reauthorization, calling it “corporate welfare” for large companies such as Boeing and General Electric.
   “This is an agency that for over 70 years provided financing for transactions, similar to which all of our competitor nations provide their exporting companies. In this case, American companies will have the credit tools that will enable them to cost effectively engage in international transactions that other private institutions won’t finance because of political or commercial risks,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who supported the bank’s reauthorization. 
   “Over the last 20 years we have learned that international markets are not seamless, and they do not operate the way the economics textbooks tell us they should. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, many banks have dropped out of the export finance business. In the case of large or long-term projects, like power plant construction or mainframe aircraft, it has been a long time since private banks were prepared to provide financing without a government guarantee, which has long been one of the bank’s important functions. This means that official export credit institutions like the Export-Import Bank do not supplant the market; they fill in its gaps,” explained Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council in a letter to House lawmakers on Monday.
   “If the bank is not reauthorized, jobs will continue to disappear from our shores as we lose contracts or as companies move offshore to take advantage of financing available elsewhere,” he warned.
   It’s now up to the Senate to approve similar Ex-Im Bank reauthorization legislation before it can be sent to President Obama’s desk for signature.