On Ex-Im Bank, GOP Internal Dysfunction, Obstruction & Distraction Standing in the Way of ‘Clear Majority’

July 27, 2015
Blog Post
The New York Times reports on the dysfunction and infighting among Congressional Republicans over the job-creating Export-Import Bank.  House and Senate Republicans' disarray has dealt a body blow to American businesses – large and small – and their workers trying to compete and succeed in the global Marketplace.  Speaker Boehner and House Republican leaders, however, are still showing no sign that they will end their obstruction and support American jobs:

In a rare and fiery weekend session, the Senate voted on Sunday to resurrect the federal Export-Import Bank, handing the Republican Party's most conservative wing a major defeat and setting up a showdown this week with House leaders divided over the moribund export credit agency.

The agency's authorization expired on June 30, halting all new loan guarantees and other assistance to foreign customers seeking to purchase goods from American companies.

The agency has become the subject of a kind of proxy war between the Republican Party's ideological conservatives…

Influential conservatives like Charles and David Koch and the Club for Growth political action committee have made opposition to the bank, known as Ex-Im, a litmus test for their financial support...

But the rift between conservatives and the Republican leadership has been most acute with respect to the Ex-Im Bank.  Conservative groups like Heritage Action, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation, and the Kochs' Freedom Partners saw a chance to deal a blow to President Obama…

…in Congress, lawmakers…[are]…saying the demise of the bank would cripple their export business or at least put them at a disadvantage against foreign competitors.

"We are one step closer to keeping American jobs here in America and not lost to countries like China," said Senator Mark Kirk…

Meanwhile, American businesses continue pushing for the Bank's renewal:

Michigan businesses are taking part in a new push to resurrect a federal agency that helped American companies do business overseas.

Kevin Kolevar is Vice President, Government Affairs and Public Policy at the Dow Chemical  Company. He says the Ex-Im Bank has been very important to Michigan.  He says, during a recent 7 year period, more than 60,000 jobs in Michigan were tied to overseas deals made possible by the Export Import bank.

"So that's 2007 to 2014, a period I think most Michiganders would agree we were pretty desperate job growth. Ex-Im was a big part of that," says Kolevar.

Carlos Banchik was practically raised on construction sites.  As a boy in Argentina, he helped his father, an engineering contractor, build low-income housing.  Following in his dad's footsteps was only natural.  In 2003, Banchik started a small engineering business, Innova Technologies, in Las Vegas.

The bank's closure means it cannot enter into any new transactions. In other words, were Innova Technologies to build another monorail outside the United States, it would have to turn to the private sector to buy a credit insurance policy.

Without the bank, Innova Technologies is at risk of delayed payments and might have to leave the export business altogether.

"In these large projects, you're a small company dealing with very large entities," Banchik said.  "For small companies, the Ex-Im Bank is our livelihood."

If Speaker Boehner and House GOP Leaders dare to defy the extremist Tea Party block fixated on killing jobs, the votes to renew the job-creating, small business-supporting Ex-Im Bank exist.  As TheNew York Times states: "A clear majority in the House supports resurrecting the agency, but it will be up to House leaders to decide whether the chamber will get a vote, or whether to allow the bank's powerful opponents — led by the House majority leader, the majority whip, the Ways and Means Committee chairman and the Financial Services Committee chairman — to stand in the way."