In Our View: Ex-Im Bank Merits Debate

Continued wrangling over the federal Export-Import Bank provides several examples of Congress at its worst.

To start with, a growing roster of opponents stands on the wrong side of logic, as Tea Party adherents and other conservatives have made the bank a cause célèbre for their free-market philosophy. For 81 years, the bank has provided guaranteed loans to overseas entities wishing to purchase products from American manufacturers, an act that now amounts to “crony capitalism” or “corporate welfare” in the minds of critics. The fact that the Ex-Im Bank last year supported 164,000 U.S. jobs — including 85,000 in Washington — and returned $674 million in profit to the United States Treasury apparently is secondary in importance to ideological purity.

Second, opponents of the bank managed to keep renewal of the agency from coming up for a vote before its charter expired June 30. Rather than embracing a robust debate and bringing the issue to a vote that required members to place their support or dissent on the record, critics allowed it to expire in silence. If the Ex-Im Bank is the woeful idea its opponents claim it to be, then they should be willing to present that argument for public scrutiny.

Third, Republican leaders in the Senate have revived the bank by attaching it to a bill reauthorizing an extension to the much-needed Highway Trust Fund. That tactic passed the Senate — despite churlish, unstatesmanlike behavior by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas — and now moves to the House, but the Ex-Im Bank should be debated upon its own merits.

And finally, House Republicans say they will not consider the bill passed by the Senate — because of the presence of the Ex-Im Bank.

An honest debate would demonstrate that the Export-Import Bank is a worthy government program that is important to the United States’ competitiveness in an increasingly global marketplace. Last year, the bank financed $27.5 billion in purchases from American firms and, as mentioned, made a sizable profit. Over the past 20 years, in fact, it has returned some $7 billion to the Treasury by making money on interest and fees. As Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., wrote in an opinion piece for USA Today, “It is one of the few government programs that actually help small businesses accomplish two critical objectives — export American-made products overseas and create good, sustainable jobs in America.”

This is particularly important in Washington, which stands as the nation’s most trade-dependent state. The bank often is derided by critics as the “Bank of Boeing,” because the aerospace giant is its most frequent customer, but what rarely is mentioned is the small companies who are able to compete globally with assistance from the Ex-Im. More than 230 Washington companies have used the bank since 2007, including Vancouver entities such as Columbia Machine, Korab USA and Northwest Pipe Company. In addition, criticizing the Ex-Im Bank for its dealings with Boeing serves to ignore the hundreds of small vendors who rely upon Boeing and provide thousands of jobs throughout the state.

Despite all this, opposition remains virulent. All of which places the Tea Party members of Congress on the same side as China, Russia and the 60-some other countries that have loan programs similar to those provided by the bank; those nations would love to see the Ex-Im’s demise.

Despite all that, after eight decades of success, the Export-Import Bank has devolved into a shameful episode for Congress.