Suzanimal
06-08-2015, 11:14 AM
The Export-Import Bank is almost certain to close its doors for the first time in history this summer, dragged down by presidential politics and a bitterly divided GOP — raising the question of whether the nation’s chief export credit agency will ever be revived.
Supporters are beginning to throw up their hands and admit that the agency is very likely to lose its charter after June 30, the first time since President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the agency in 1934 that it won’t be available to support U.S. exporters.
House leaders, who are divided on the issue, are waiting to see if the Senate can pass a reauthorization bill first.
But the lack of available floor time in the Senate — combined with scant pieces of must-pass legislation awaiting action this month — means the political football will almost certainly be punted until July after the bank’s charter expires, according to top Senate Republicans and Democrats following the matter. That means bank supporters are sure to try to revive the bank later this summer, an effort that will cause a major rift within the GOP.
Indeed, Republican presidential politics are bound to consume the fight — similar to the recent battle over the PATRIOT Act when Rand Paul seized the Senate floor and Marco Rubio’s unsuccessful bid to attach an Israel amendment to an Iran measure earlier this spring. This latest tiff pits Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who strongly backs the bank, against Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rubio of Florida and Paul of Kentucky — all of whom are fiercely opposed to it.
Neither Cruz nor Graham minced words.
“The fact that you would let the bank expire because of some ideological jihad … I’m not going to be part of it,” Graham said in May.
On Thursday, Cruz fired back, saying that lawmakers should do “everything possible” to kill the bank.
“It would be a reckless gamble if this body were to try to hold our national defense hostage in an effort to force through an extension of crony capitalism,” Cruz said, referring to discussions about potentially adding the plan to a defense policy bill. “That would be a reckless and irresponsible decision.”
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Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/ex-im-bank-expiration-now-inevitable-amid-2016-gop-fight-118663.html#ixzz3cUY8l5YF
Supporters are beginning to throw up their hands and admit that the agency is very likely to lose its charter after June 30, the first time since President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the agency in 1934 that it won’t be available to support U.S. exporters.
House leaders, who are divided on the issue, are waiting to see if the Senate can pass a reauthorization bill first.
But the lack of available floor time in the Senate — combined with scant pieces of must-pass legislation awaiting action this month — means the political football will almost certainly be punted until July after the bank’s charter expires, according to top Senate Republicans and Democrats following the matter. That means bank supporters are sure to try to revive the bank later this summer, an effort that will cause a major rift within the GOP.
Indeed, Republican presidential politics are bound to consume the fight — similar to the recent battle over the PATRIOT Act when Rand Paul seized the Senate floor and Marco Rubio’s unsuccessful bid to attach an Israel amendment to an Iran measure earlier this spring. This latest tiff pits Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who strongly backs the bank, against Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rubio of Florida and Paul of Kentucky — all of whom are fiercely opposed to it.
Neither Cruz nor Graham minced words.
“The fact that you would let the bank expire because of some ideological jihad … I’m not going to be part of it,” Graham said in May.
On Thursday, Cruz fired back, saying that lawmakers should do “everything possible” to kill the bank.
“It would be a reckless gamble if this body were to try to hold our national defense hostage in an effort to force through an extension of crony capitalism,” Cruz said, referring to discussions about potentially adding the plan to a defense policy bill. “That would be a reckless and irresponsible decision.”
...
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/ex-im-bank-expiration-now-inevitable-amid-2016-gop-fight-118663.html#ixzz3cUY8l5YF