Washington—On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed cloture on three Export-Import Bank nominees in an effort to reestablish a quorum which allows the Ex-Im Bank to issue loans of more than $10 million. Due to conservative opposition, the Ex-Im Bank hasn’t had the necessary quorum to be able to issue these loans starting in 2015.
Contrary to what proponents of the bank claim, the majority of its loans go to multinational corporations such as Boeing, not American small businesses. According to Diane Katz, Senior Research Fellow in Regulatory Policy at The Heritage Foundation: “Boeing alone garnered 70 percent of all Export-Import Bank loan guarantees and 40 percent of all authorizations.”
Ironically, the lack of a quorum has made the Ex-Im Bank much kinder to small businesses. According to the Wall Street Journal:
The lack of a quorum has converted the bank into a financier of small business, which proponents have always argued is the place’s purpose. The Mercatus Center at George Mason University recently released an analysis showing that in 2018 some 66 percent of the bank’s financing flowed to small businesses, versus 25 percent in 2014.
In addition to its cronyism, the Ex-Im Bank has a long history of providing subsidies to foreign countries such as China and Mexico. The Air Transport Association has estimated that the bank’s loans to foreign airlines have killed as many as 7,500 jobs for domestic airlines in the United States.
Heritage Action released the following statement from executive director Tim Chapman:
President Trump was elected to drain the swamp and stand up for working class Americans by putting America first. Senate Republican efforts to restore the power of Ex-Im to help politically connected multinational corporations and subsidize China is a direct violation of this promise. Senate Republicans should reject any attempts to restore a quorum or reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank.
Related:
Coalition letter opposing reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank
Wall Street Journal: Honey, We Shrunk the Ex-Im Bank
Daily Signal: Export-Import Bank Is Not the Way to Fight China
Mercatus: Ex-Im Bank: A Comparative Analysis of Pre- and Post-Quorum Lending