House supporters of a bill to revive the Export-Import Bank say they will have enough signatures Friday for a petition that will force the House to vote on the bill, which bitterly divides the GOP conference.
“I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised,” said Ex-Im supporter and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla.
Lawmakers exiting a closed-door House conference meeting Friday morning say at least 37 Republicans have signed on to the petition.
Democrats unanimously support the Ex-Im Bank and are expected to sign on to the discharge petition. Those Democrats, combined with the GOP support, will produce more than the 218 signatures needed to push the bill to the floor for a vote in late October.
“It would be rare” for a bill to move to the floor over the desires of the GOP leadership, Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said Friday. “But it’s been talked about widely in the conference, about why people would do it. It’s one way of getting it done.”
The bank’s authorization expired on June 30 after House Republicans refused to bring a reauthorization of the bank’s charter to the floor for a vote. Since then, the bank has only been able to manage the export credit and credit guarantee contracts already in operation as of June, and has been unable to authorize new contracts to help overseas entities finance the purchase of U.S. goods and services.
Many conservatives despise the bank and want to keep it from coming back to life, and say it represents a form of corporate welfare backed by the taxpayers.
But some Republicans and many Democrats believe the bank supports thousands of U.S. jobs and believe it’s expiration is damaging the nation’s economy. They want to vote on a bill that would reauthorize and reform the bank.
With no move to bring the bill to the floor by the GOP leadership, a trio of Republican proponents took the unusual step of trying to circumvent “regular order” with the discharge petition. The petition’s sponsors are Reps. Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn., Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Chris Collins, R-N.Y.
“This Republican-led petition is a procedure to stand up to Washington’s broken system that is killing thousands of American jobs and jeopardizing thousands more,” the three lawmakers said in a statement. “Our constituents expect us to fight for them and get the job done, but Congress has failed to even hold a vote to reform and reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank. We refuse to look any more hardworking Americans in the eye and say, ‘You lost your job because Congress refused to hold a vote.’ This cannot wait any longer. If we do not get this done for the American people, the only thing our country will be exporting is jobs.”
But not everyone who supports Ex-Im revival is signing the petition.
Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Missouri, said she won’t support the petition. Wagner is a member of the House Financial Services Committee, led by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas. Hensarling is the chief House opponent of the bank and led the effort to eliminate it.
“I wish we could have done this through regular order and through the committee,” Wagner said.
