WASHINGTON, April 29, 2015 – The Export-Import Bank’s charter is set to expire June 30, and it looks like supporters are going to have to depend on the Senate to rescue it. House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, is strongly opposed to extending the bank’s charter, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is making clear that he’s not going to intervene.
“I believe in the committee process and regular order,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday. “That’s the way Ex-Im should go.” If the charter expires, the bank would be unable to make new loans but existing ones would remain in effect, and no one would lose jobs, he said.
Conservative groups have been lobbying heavily to kill the bank – Heritage Action for America calls it a “slush fund” for Boeing and other corporate interests -- and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., says it won’t be easy to move an Ex-Im bill through the Senate either. “If it happens, my guess is that it happens here first,” he said. “It’s going to be a heavy lift… It’s going to be a tougher vote than it has in past years.”
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers, whose members includes John Deere and other agricultural equipment makers, argues that prolonged uncertainty about the Ex-Im Bank is hurting U.S. businesses.
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