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U.S. NEWSSaturday 5 December 2015
Congress revives contentious US Export-Import Bank
ERICA WERNER A man walks out of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. in Washington. With little fanfare, Congress Republican.
AP Congressional Corre- has revived the federal Export-Import Bank five months after allowing it to expire. That hands a Rubio is among the Re-
spondent victory to business groups and a defeat to tea party conservatives and the billionaire GOP donor publican presidential can-
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a Koch Brothers. didates and other leading
victory for the business es- Republicans who’ve lined
tablishment over tea party (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) up against the bank, a
conservatives, President once-obscure entity that’s
Barack Obama signed the billionaire GOP Koch beneficiaries are large cor- who want to end corpo- become a cause cele-
legislation Friday reviving Brothers decried the devel- porations that don’t really rate welfare handouts and bre for conservatives led
the U.S. Export-Import Bank opment, arguing that the need the help. let the free market finance by the Koch Brothers in re-
five months after Congress bank amounts to govern- “The Export-Import Bank’s overseas investments by cent years. For decades it
allowed it to expire. ment interference in the revival in this bill is espe- American companies,” was renewed by bipartisan
The bank is a small federal free market and many of its cially offensive to taxpayers said Sen. Marco Rubio, a agreement, with little or
agency that makes and no debate and often not
guarantees loans to help even a roll-call vote. But
foreign customers buy U.S. after the Koch Brothers and
goods. A measure extend- other conservative groups
ing it through 2019 was in- began to seize on the op-
cluded in a massive trans- portunity to kill off a federal
portation bill that cleared agency, leading Republi-
the House and Senate late cans such as House Major-
Thursday and was signed ity Leader Kevin McCarthy
Friday by Obama. who once supported the
The development was bank, turned against it.
cheered by business Amid that pressure and
groups like the U.S. Cham- with tea party lawmakers
ber of Commerce, which on the ascent on Capitol
say the Ex-Im Bank is nec- Hill, Congress failed to act
essary for U.S. competitive- when the bank’s charter
ness since most overseas was up for renewal June
competitors rely on simi- 30, allowing it to expire for
lar government help. But the first time in its 81-year
conservatives pushed by history.q
