A top House Republican indicated on Thursday that the GOP would allow the Export-Import Bank to expire at the end of June.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., asked Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., several times whether the GOP would bring up any bill next week to extend the charter of the bank, which expires June 30.
“No, there is no action pending or scheduled before the House,” McCarthy said. Hoyer asked McCarthy to repeat that, and he did: “There is no action scheduled for this House.”
Hoyer asked twice if Republicans have any intention to vote on some bill to keep the bank open, and got the same answer.
“There is no action scheduled at this appropriate time,” McCarthy said. “There is no pending action before this House for next week.”
Next week is a critical time for the bank, since Congress will only be in for four days, and then break for the July 4 recess, and return on July 7. If the bank is going to be reauthorized, it must happen by next week, or its charter will lapse, even if just temporarily.
It’s been known for several weeks now that the bank’s charter might expire, and McCarthy’s comments seemed to seal the bank’s fate.
The bank offers loans and loan guarantees to overseas governments and companies to help them finance the purchase of U.S. goods and services. But Republicans say it’s a complicated form of corporate welfare, and only helps huge companies like Boeing that would still be able to find other ways to finance their exports.
Expiration of the bank’s charter would allow the entity to continue servicing transactions that have already been approved, but would shut down its ability to finance new sales. Democrats say that will hurt U.S. exports and jobs.
Democrats like Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and many Republicans too, have argued for years now that the bank makes money for the government by offering export finance terms to foreign entities. But new research contradicts those claims, and instead shows that the bank actually costs taxpayers.
Last year, the Congressional Budget Office released a report saying that if normal accounting rules are used, the bank’s activities would lead to a $2 billion loss for the government, not a $14 billion gain.
