WASHINGTON — Backers of the U.S. Export-Import Bank said Tuesday they can defeat a barrage of proposed amendments aimed at gutting the trade lender’s ability to aid large companies such Boeing Co. and General Electric Co.
A hard-fought renewal of Ex-Im’s charter, which has been expired since June 30, is part of a Senate-passed transportation funding bill that is before the House Rules Committee. The bank’s opponents are now piling on proposals to sharply curtail its activities.
Critics of the bank, including new House Speaker Paul Ryan, argue that it should be closed for good to eliminate “corporate welfare” that puts U.S. taxpayers at risk. Ryan on Tuesday promised an “open process” for amendments to the six-year transportation bill.
Maine Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, an outspoken critic of the bank, wrote in an OpEd for the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday that he had “used the full weight of my office to help end the fraud, corruption and inside dealings at the bank, and to reduce taxpayer risk for a possible bailout. I have never stated that I would oppose the bank’s reauthorization to function.”
Poliquin also said that he “successfully pushed for new reforms at the bank, and then voted to reauthorize it. Going forward, the bank will be stronger and operate with more integrity and less risk to taxpayers.”
Rep. Stephen Fincher, a Tennessee Republican who led an effort to revive Ex-Im by breaking down procedural roadblocks that culminated in a 313-118 renewal vote last week, said he hoped that many of the amendments would be ruled inappropriate.
But he added that a majority of Republicans support Ex-Im’s ability to aid both large and small firms.
“This is an attempt to derail our efforts to save jobs, plain and simple,” Fincher told reporters. “As long as the majority of our members get our chance to beat back these amendments, we can win.”
One such amendment, from conservative Republican U.S. Rep. Curt Clawson, would require 100 percent of Ex-Im’s support go to small businesses, compared with at least 20 percent currently.
This would effectively shut out the trade bank’s biggest users, including Boeing, GE and Caterpillar Inc. and thousands of midsize firms. Boeing received more than $8 billion in financing and loan guarantees in fiscal 2014, about 40 percent of Ex-Im’s total support that year.
Among the 11 Ex-Im-focused amendments offered by Republican U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney are proposals to prohibit Ex-Im assistance to entities doing business with Iran or involving countries with over $100 billion in sovereign wealth fund assets — cutting off the United Arab Emirates, China, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.
The second-ranking House Democrat, Steny Hoyer, said he was urging his party’s members to oppose “any and all amendments” related to Ex-Im.
He said House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling could have allowed amendments to an Ex-Im renewal bill but chose instead not to move any legislation.
“There was a time for amendments. That’s gone. It’s gone because Mr. Hensarling kept the bill bottled up,” Hoyer said.