The House on Tuesday passed legislation to revive the Export-Import Bank, using a rarely employed parliamentary move that circumvented the Republican leadership.
Lawmakers voted 313-118 to reauthorize the bank, which was blocked from taking on new business on June 30 after conservatives blocked a measure to keep it operating. The House vote occurred after a bipartisan group of lawmakers garnered 218 votes on a discharge petition, which forces a floor vote on a bill even if the House Speaker won’t call for one.
“We showed that Democrats and Republicans can work together to overcome the obstruction caused by an ideologically driven minority that put its own uncompromising principles over the needs of the American people,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who is the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee.
The fight against the bank has been driven by Financial Services panel chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, who said he believes it’s riddled with corruption and serves as a form of corporate welfare.
“For those who claim Ex-Im creates jobs, the Congressional Research Service would tend to beg to disagree, citing economists who say they largely re-arrange jobs,” Hensarling said.
But lawmakers have been lobbied heavily by companies who say they need the bank to help secure the loans needed to buy their goods. The death of the bank would lead to significant job loss, they threatened.
“The U.S. Export-Import Bank means jobs in the United States of America,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio.
The future of the legislation remains murky despite the bipartisan support it enjoys in both the House and Senate.
The Senate earlier this year attached a provision to revive the bank to a highway trust fund authorization measure. But that bill must be combined with a House-passed highway bill, which will not include the provision.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday he won’t bring the standalone House bill to the floor in the upper chamber and said the bank’s future will be determined by the lawmakers who will negotiate the House-Senate transportation bill.
House passage was nevertheless historic. It is rare for lawmakers to circumvent the leadership and force a vote on legislation, although they have tried repeatedly over the years.
The last time lawmakers won enough support to move a bill with a discharge petition was in 2002, when then-Reps. Chris Shays, R-Conn., and Marty Meehan, D-Mass., rounded up 218 signatures in support of a campaign finance reform bill.
Republican leaders frowned upon the discharge petition.
Among those to take to the floor in opposition to the bill was Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who in a matter days will likely become House speaker, succeeding John Boehner, R-Ohio.
“I think there are plenty of ways to expand opportunities in this country and corporate welfare isn’t one of them,” Ryan said.
