Conservative Republican critics of the trade finance agency have argued that EXIM should be closed permanently because it provides unnecessary “corporate welfare” to elite multinationals including Boeing Co and General Electric Co.
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Before the House of Representatives votes on a bill that could bring the controversial Export-Import Bank back to life, lawmakers will address measures aimed at, among other things, boosting the agency’s financing for small businesses and diversifying its portfolio.
GE executives say the company is bidding on $11 billion in projects, mostly in developing nations, and that those bids won’t be entertained if they aren’t sponsored by an export credit agency. That would exclude countries like Saudi Arabia, China and Kuwait.
Lynn Westmoreland, Ga.: Would require Ex-Im’s Board of Directors to discuss comments from any US company that alleges it will “suffer economic harm” from a transaction the bank proposes.
Votes on those and other amendments are likely Wednesday, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said.
Thursday’s 363-64 vote authorizes funding for six years for highways, but with an important distinction that Congress must provide additional funding for the last three years of it, while the Ex-Im Bank would have its expired funds extended to 2019.
McGee said he and business council members are hopeful the Senate will take similar action as the House and renew the banks charter. Once the House passes its version, House and Senate lawmakers will hammer out differences in a conference committee.
“There is no reason to put any more American jobs in jeopardy by delaying this bill”, Fincher said in a statement.
Statewide since 2007, 114 Connecticut exporters have received support from the bank totaling more than $4 billion in export value, almost half of which was generated by 27 Connecticut aviation and aerospace companies, according to a report released by Murphy’s office detailing the importance of the bank to the state’s aerospace corridor.
Forty-two Republicans and 176 Democrats signed the discharge petition, and when the reauthorization bill came up for a vote, 127 Republicans were in support, with 117 against.
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Ex-Im has been helping USA companies export their goods and services for decades, with expertise, financing for prospective foreign buyers, and a kind of insurance that US companies buy in case a foreign customer can not pay for goods it has ordered. It also helps Washington farm exports and small firms around the state.
