Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won’t take up a standalone measure to revive the Export-Import Bank, even though the House plans to pass such a bill this afternoon.
“No, not in the Senate,” McConnell, R-Ky., said when asked if he planned to take up the House bill, which was forced onto the floor through a rarely achieved parliamentary move.
McConnell’s decision doesn’t kill the bank, however. Earlier this year, senators voted to add onto a longterm highway trust fund bill a provision that would bring the bank back to life.
The Senate’s highway measure will eventually be part of a compromise deal with the House on its own highway funding bill. GOP aides said lawmakers will have to decide then whether they want to reauthorize the bank in the highway measure, and McConnell agreed that the highway bill is the only way at this point.
“The way to achieve Ex-Im, if it is going to be achieved in the Senate, would be in the context of the highway bill,” McConnell said.
The bank is supported by a bipartisan majority in both the House and Senate. But conservatives oppose it, including McConnell, and are likely to strenuously object to reviving the bank as part of the highway deal. Authorization for the bank expired June 30, pleasing conservative opponents who believe it represents a form of corporate welfare.
Earlier Tuesday, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said if McConnell did not agree to take up a standalone Export-Import Bank measure, “there are other ways to do it,” including a deal that would attach the measure to a must-pass bill.
Export-Import Bank supporters in the House were able to win a vote on reviving the bank by garnering 218 signatures for a discharge petition, which circumvented the GOP leadership to bring legislation to the floor for consideration. It is expected to pass the House Tuesday afternoon.
