Capitol Hill Fight Looms For Ex-Im Bank Reauthorization

A Capitol Hill battle is shaping up over the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. The bank provides financial aid to U.S. exporters, including heavy-equipment makers and construction firms. Its authorization expires on Sept. 30. A White House bill to keep Ex-Im running for five years has business groups' support. But at least one key House Republican opposes the proposal.

The White House bill, sent to Congress on April 23, would extend Ex-Im through 2019 and raise its aid cap, in steps, to $160 billion from $140 billion. Business doesn't want to see the bank's authority lapse.

Bill Lane, Caterpillar Inc. director of global government affairs, says Ex-Im aid is often key to a U.S. company's winning an overseas contract. "If you have Ex-Im Bank support, you get the business," he says. "And if you don't have it, you don't."

HOCHBERG

Ex-Im Chairman Fred Hochberg said at the bank's annual conference, on April 24, that a five-year bill "would deliver confidence to countless American exporters and their workers and certainty to their buyers overseas." He added, "Everyone is counting on Congress to get this done and done on time."

But House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) blasted the proposal. "I have always believed that reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank is a bad idea," he said on April 25. "Only in Washington can a taxpayer-subsidized program whose only purpose is to pick winners and losers 'fail upward' by requesting more money."

The debate arises at a time of strong world infrastructure demand. Speaking at the Ex-Im conference, Rockefeller Foundation President Judith Rodin said huge population growth is driving that demand, particularly in developing countries' "second-tier cities."

Lane says Caterpillar favors some bank policy changes—for example, the requirement that firms receiving Ex-Im aid use U.S. ships to carry their goods. But Cat will push for a long-term Ex-Im measure. Lane says, "We have lots of priorities, but [an Ex-Im bill] is at the top of the list right now and will become even more so as we get close to September 30th."

Pam Hunter McFarland was a Senior Editor of ENR and her expertise was: Sourcebooks, Environment, Labor

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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