House Passes Highway Bill With Export-Import Bank Renewal

The measure, passed on a 363-64 vote, authorizes federal spending on road, bridge and rail transit infrastructure projects for six years, providing guaranteed funding for three years.

Conservatives say the bank dispenses corporate welfare and mostly benefits large exporters, such as Boeing and General Electric while putting taxpayers on the hook for future losses on the assistance.

The bill has been sent to the Senate for further consideration. “If it doesn’t get reauthorized, people in Connecticut will be out of work and I’m sick and exhausted of Tea Party Republicans playing games with the lives of people in my state”, Murphy said in a statement following a House of Representatives vote to reauthorize the bank passed in late October.

But Congress’s failure to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank has put thousands of Wisconsin manufacturing jobs in jeopardy.

“Congress was able to come together to pass legislation to revive the much-needed Export-Import Bank, which provides financing for foreign customers to purchase goods and services from US companies”, Lipinski said.

Republican-friendly business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have stressed the role the bank plays in helping small businesses. Balancing the need to move the bill with his pledge to give lawmakers a greater voice in the legislative process, Mr. Ryan’s approach appears to be working for now.

And did we mention that the bank generally returns money to the U.S. Treasury each year?

Conservatives have pointed to the bank’s closure as a major accomplishment in their efforts to shrink the federal government, noting they succeeded in ending a program begun by Franklin Roosevelt.

Since July 1, the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the country’s official export credit agency providing financing and insurance for global trade with USA companies, has been unable to take on new business.

The House began debate on the Highway Trust Fund yesterday and voted on 21 amendments to the bill.

A similar bill has already been approved by the Senate, including a provision that renews the Ex-Im Bank’s charter. The changes include reducing the bank’s overall lending cap to $135 billion, from $140 billion, and increasing the percentage of aid provided to small businesses to 25%, from 20%.

“It’s the most amendments that we have plowed through on an authorization bill in recent memory-maybe even distant memory, so that part is good”, Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, the top Democrat on the House Transportation Committee, told reporters on Wednesday.