
Senate to Vote on Ex-Im Nominees
May 8, 2019 12:06 pmNSBA earlier this week urged lawmakers to approve the nominations to Ex-Im Bank's Board of Directors in order to ensure Ex-Im functions properly.
NSBA earlier this week urged lawmakers to approve the nominations to Ex-Im Bank's Board of Directors in order to ensure Ex-Im functions properly.
Lawmakers will hear from Trump's nominee to head Ex-Im Bank this week, an agency that has been hobbled in the last two years by partisan political motives.
According to the White House, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jeffrey Gerrish will be named Acting President of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. (Ex-Im) while maintaining his position at the USTR office.
Recently, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross signaled support for Ex-Im Bank—or a similar mechanism—to help bolster U.S. exports.
On Jan. 4, Ex-Im Bank released its FY 2016 Annual Report highlighting its support of more than $8 billion in U.S. exports and an estimated 52,000 U.S. jobs.
NSBA and SBEA applaud passage in the House of reauthorizing language for Ex-Im Bank nearly four months after partisan politics shut down Ex-Im. The House voted overwhelmingly in support of the Bank with 313 lawmakers finally getting the opportunity to express their views on the record.
Ex-Im Bank is one step closer to being reauthorized, after Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) filed a discharge petition--the first successful one of its kind in nearly a decade--to force a floor vote in the House on legislation to renew Ex-Im. The move to save Ex-Im represents the first successful discharge petition in nearly a decade, as it is a rare legislative procedural maneuver that bypasses the usual process of moving legislation through a committee to the House floor. Last week, approximately 42 Republicans joined nearly every Democrats to reach the necessary signatures needed to force a vote—expected on Oct. 26—to renew Ex-Im’s charter. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, became the 218th signature on the Ex-Im discharge petition, setting the bill up for a full House vote likely later this month.
The House Rules Committee narrowly rejected an amendment to attach reauthorization of Ex-Im Bank to the short-term highway funding bill—a measure which appears likely to pass both the House and Senate this week.
Last week, the Senate—in a primarily symbolic procedural vote—demonstrated broad support for a long-term reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. (Ex-Im) with 65 Senators voting in support of the Bank.
Late last week, Congress passed the FY 2015 CR which will fund the government through Dec. 11 at current levels. Both chambers are now on recess until after the midterm elections in November.