Obama urges Congress to reauthorize Ex-Im Bank

President Barack Obama is urging Congress to reauthorise the charter for the Export-Import Bank, a tool that enables businesses to secure financing for export. But the bank had approved just $132 million in transactions before it lapsed.

But the bank also helps businesses with as few as 12 employees, who pay fees and are not subsidized, Obama said.

The 81-year-old bank, which helps finance foreign purchases of U.S. products such as Boeing planes, saw its charter lapse on July 1 when Congress failed to act.

On Wednesday, Obama called on Congress reauthorize the bank, which Congress allowed to expire in late June, by using small- and medium-sized business owners to debunk the Congressional argument that it provides government handouts to big businesses. Businesses are in danger.

“We need to get through the next five legislative days and not have Ex-Im attached to anything”, Jordan said. Conservatives denounce it as corporate welfare, although Mr. Obama insisted that’s not the case. With conservative opponents celebrating its demise, prospects to revive it are uncertain. Senate negotiators reached a deal on that bill on Tuesday.

Historically the Export-Import Bank has been a bipartisan programme – under Democratic Presidents and Republican Presidents – with support from Democratic members of Congress and Republican members of Congress. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a 2016 presidential candidate, has introduced an amendment to the highway bill to strip Planned Parenthood of any taxpayer funding, following a controversy over their handling of fetal tissue. “And you’ve heard me take a pretty dim view in the past of ideological riders that are unrelated to the baseline bill”.

Mr. Obama said Wednesday that renewing the Export-Import Bank “should be a no-brainer”.

“I know it’s not as interesting as some of the other issues, and Donald Trump, and all that stuff”, Obama told reporters after his meeting.

The bank can not now make new loans or guarantees but remains in business to service billions in outstanding loans and guarantees. The bank’s next chance would be a major government funding measure needed by September 30, the start of the new fiscal year and the date Ex-Im’s operating budget runs out.