U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., co-sponsored a bill last week to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
Introduced March 19 by Sens. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., the
legislation seeks to extend the federal lending agency’s life to Sept. 30, 2019. After debate on the subject last year and support from both Blunt and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., the bank’s charter was extended for nine months as a stop-gap funding measure. Its charter is set to expire June 30, according to a news release.
Blunt said the bill helps Missouri stay competitive in a global marketplace.
“Missouri job creators and thousands of workers in our state benefit from Export-Import Bank loans,” Blunt said in the release.
Since 2007, 129 Missouri exporters have benefited from Ex-Im Bank assistance, including 83 small businesses, largely affecting machinery manufacturing and sales, heavy and civil works construction, and food manufacturing and sales employers, according to the release
According to the August Springfield Business Journal article, “
Ex-Im Bank awaits reauthorization,” six companies have used the bank to help generate $49.1 million in international sales since 2007: 3D Corporate Solutions LLC, Custom Metalcraft Inc., Executive Coach Builders Inc., International Division Inc., Paul Mueller Co. and Tuthill Corp. With bank assistance, those companies sold $1 billion in products and services outside the U.S. during that time.
According to the release, the bill would reduce taxpayer risk by implementing higher loan loss reserves and increasing required lending to small businesses to 25 percent from 20 percent. It also would create a chief risk officer and risk management committee to oversee the bank, require the inspector general to audit its management procedures and create a chief ethics officer to oversee ethical practices of the bank’s employees.
Groups such as the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce - which is backed by the likes of the Koch brothers - oppose the bank because of its focus on government spending.
“The swamp of Washington is infested with lobbyists trying to distort the marketplace by placing billions of taxpayer dollars at risk to subsidize some of America’s largest, most well-connected companies,” the group posted in a
statement this month.
In the fall SBJ article, McCaskill said nearly 85 percent of companies supported by the bank are small businesses.[[In-content Ad]]
