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The Export-Import Bank

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The Export-Import Bank's authorization is set to expire on Sept. 30, 2014 — and the House and Senate must decide whether to reauthorize the Bank.

What is the Export-Import Bank?

The Export-Import Bank is the official export credit agency of the United States. Its mission is to assist in financing the export of US goods and services to international markets. The Ex-Im Bank offers direct loans, loan guarantees, working capital guarantees and export credit insurance, as well as special financing programs.

The Ex-Im Bank has supported nearly 1.2 million private sector US jobs since 2009, including 205,000 jobs in FY2013 alone. It financed a total of $6 billion in small business exports, of which $5.2 billion was for the direct support of American small-business exporters last year. Last year, 3,413 small businesses were financed by the Bank, accounting for nearly 90 percent of its transactions.

According to the Bank, it operates at no cost to the taxpayers — and in FY2013, it generated more than $1 billion for US taxpayers above operation costs and loan loss reserves, which goes toward deficit reduction. (Source: Ex-Im Bank's Chairman Fred Hochberg's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.)

The Export-Import Bank was established by executive order in 1934 and became an independent agency in 1945.

In 2012, Congress reauthorized the Ex-Im Bank, increasing its exposure limit (the limit on total aggregate outstanding amount of financing) from $100 billion to $140 billion. This authorization expires on Sept. 30, 2014. (Learn more.)

Current Status on Reauthorization

On June 25, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing entitled "Corporate Necessity or Corporate Welfare?" on the expiring authorization for the Export-Import Bank. And, in a surprise move at the hearing, both Rep. John Campbell (R-CA) and Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN) announced that they would be introducing bills to reform and reauthorize the Bank.

In a letter to the House and Senate leadership, 37 governors (including 15 Republicans) urged Congress to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank: "Failure to reauthorize the agency’s operations will place US companies at a serious disadvantage, which would inevitably lead to fewer exports and the loss of thousands of jobs in our states." (Read the letter.)

Majority Leader-elect Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Whip-elect Steve Scalise (R-LA) have both expressed opposition to reauthorizing the Bank. However, 41 Republican Representatives sent Speaker Boehner (R-OH) a letter in favor of reauthorization of the Bank. Meanwhile, other Members of Congress want to abolish the Ex-Im Bank entirely.

From our Hill Sources

Supporters of the Ex-Im Bank say that not reauthorizing “would be detrimental to the thousands of small businesses that work with the Export-Import Bank and would put 205,000 export-dependent jobs in jeopardy.” More than 850 business organizations are urging Congress to reauthorize the Bank. In an open letter to Congress, they warned that "failure to reauthorize Ex-Im would amount to unilateral disarmament in the face of other governments’ far more aggressive export credit programs…American companies would be put at a unique disadvantage in global markets, resulting immediately in lost sales and lost jobs."

Several Members of Congress — mostly Republicans — argue that the Ex-Im Bank should not be reauthorized. They argue that the Ex-Im Bank doesn’t create jobs, citing a 1997 GAO study that found that government export finance assistance programs like Ex-Im “largely shift production among sectors within the economy rather than raise the overall level of employment in the economy.”  

Opponents also express concern that the Bank "uses American taxpayers’ money to help foreign corporations, including businesses that are owned by the governments of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates." On July 25, House Chairman Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling called on President Obama to immediately halt Ex-Im Bank deals with Russia: "While your Administration announces sanctions on Russian companies on the one hand, on the other it offers sweetheart deals to Russian companies through Ex-Im." (Read the letter.) 

Related Bills

Congress is also proposing other reforms for the Bank — or eliminating it completely.

Please keep in mind that highlighting a bill or issue doesn't imply a POPVOX endorsement in any way. Rather, we're simply trying to offer one more way to stay informed of an overwhelmingly complex legislative system.

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