U.S. Senate backs Ex-Im Bank renewal in
procedural vote
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[July 27, 2015]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S.
Senate voted on Sunday to advance legislation that would revive the
federal Export-Import Bank, whose charter expired on June 30 and was not
renewed by Congress, with conservative Republicans pushing to shut down
the bank for good.
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By a vote of 67-26, the Senate, in a rare Sunday session, limited
debate on a measure that would reauthorize the federal credit agency
through Sept. 30, 2019. Sixty votes of support were needed to keep
the initiative alive.
The vote demonstrated the Senate's strong backing for bringing Ex-Im
back to life, but its future remains in doubt.
The Republican-controlled Senate still must vote on whether to
attach the measure to revive the bank, which helps U.S. exporters,
to an unrelated bill on highway and mass transit funding.
Even if that occurs in the coming days, it is not clear whether the
House of Representatives would embrace the bill, with its
controversial Ex-Im provision.
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"We are one step closer to keeping American jobs here in America and
not lost to countries like China," Republican Senator Mark Kirk of
Illinois said after voting in favor of advancing the legislation.
Conservative Republicans, many of them in the House, have targeted
Ex-Im for extinction, claiming it provides corporate welfare to U.S.
companies such as Boeing Co and General Electric Co.
The Obama administration and many Democrats and Republicans in
Congress support the bank, saying it helps American companies, large
and small, compete against foreign firms whose governments provide
loan guarantees or other supports.
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The White House has argued that U.S. companies and workers would be
disadvantaged without the Ex-Im Bank, and that firms in countries
like China would step in and win new business.
Congress' refusal to renew Ex-Im's charter by the end of last month
meant it no longer could make new loans. Unless Congress acts, the
bank will have to shut its doors on Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal
year, when its administrative budget expires.
Before the Ex-Im vote, the Senate rejected another Republican-backed
effort to advance a measure to repeal President Barack Obama's 2010
healthcare law, widely known as Obamacare.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by John
Whitesides; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Paul Simao)
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