House passes Export-Import Bank reauthorization spurned by White House and Senate

The agency, which exists to aid U.S. exporters, has been criticized as corporate welfare and as mostly benefiting China. Business groups counter that the bank is needed to make the United States more globally competitive.

“The members of Congress who cast their vote for reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank stood with America’s manufacturing workers today. The Ex-Im Bank is a vital tool for ensuring manufacturers in America can compete on a level playing field,” said National Association of Manufacturers President Jay Timmons.

Democrats accused Republicans of flip-flopping on support for the bank. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said the bank’s reauthorization did include reforms and was broadly supported by business and labor groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO. He argued that many Republicans supported similar legislation in the past.

“This is a piece of legislation that will that will create and protect thousands of jobs because it will make us more competitive,” Hoyer said. “Don’t snatch partisanship from the jaws of bipartisanship.”

Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat and author of the reauthorization bill, said other countries had similar agencies to back their exports, and the U.S. was only hurting itself by not having its own. “This is a bill that will correct the harm done to our export agency,” she said.

Republican critics countered that it was Democratic leadership that rejected bipartisan proposals to reauthorize the bank. “This is just a show, and at the end of the day, this will not be law,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican.

He argued the White House and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell were right to reject the reauthorization because it doesn’t fundamentally reform the bank. He added that both sides of the aisle had shifted on the issue in recent years. “Times Change. Issues change. Votes change along with that,” McHenry said.

Republican Rep. Andy Barr said the reauthorization would “finance” China’s ascendancy and argued that recent actions by Beijing to suppress protests in Hong Kong made the legislation especially ill-timed. “I recognize the value a reformed Export-Import Bank can give to this country,” he said. “This bill does not go far enough to combat malign Chinese influence.”

The Ex-Im Bank provides loans, guarantees, and other financing to encourage foreign purchases of U.S. goods. Business groups have called it an essential tool for reaching foreign markets. Critics, ranging from conservatives such as Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, to liberals like Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, have called it a form of corporate welfare. Many of the bank’s loans went to state-owned companies in China.

At the beginning of this year, the bank had been effectively paralyzed for the previous three years because of a lack of a quorum, as critics had blocked nominations for open seats, including ones picked by President Trump. In early May, however, the Senate approved three new members to the bank’s board, allowing it to return to activity.

Several critics argue that the experience of the past few years, during which the bank was unable to approve large transactions and yet businesses were able to find financing, proves they were right that the Ex-Im Bank is not necessary, and the private sector could finance exports by itself. In the past, they argued the bank mostly benefited large companies, such as Boeing, which could finance its own exports.

The White House and McConnell have supported restoring the bank but rejected the House’s long-term approach. McConnell said the bank would be temporarily reauthorized through a short-term budget continuing resolution instead. “We’re not going to pass the House bill,” he said Thursday. “We do want to extend Ex-Im. A logical place to do that would be on the CR.”

In a statement, the White House said it wanted a “bipartisan, bicameral approach,” rather than Waters’s proposal.