EXIM mission being inhibited
McCaskill-071307-18356- 0038
I have joined more than 40 colleagues calling on the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee to hold a vote on the qualified Republican nominee to serve as a director of the Export-Import Bank.
The Bank cannot currently operate at full capacity because of vacancies on its board of directors, threatening thousands of American jobs and financial transactions valued at more than $20 billion.
The Export-Import Bank requires three of five board of directors seats to be filled by the Senate, but only two directors currently serve. Without a quorum, the Export-Import Bank cannot approve export financing deals of more than $10 million.
Mr. J. Mark McWatters is a well-qualified, Republican nominee who deserves to have his nomination considered by the committee for an up or down vote,
The failure to move McWatters’ nomination is beginning to have serious negative consequences for American workers across the country. Due to the board’s current lack of a quorum, medium and long-term transactions valued in excess of $10 million cannot be approved. The Export-Import Bank has more than 30 board-level transactions pending in the pipeline, valued at more than $20 billion, supporting tens of thousands of high paying manufacturing and servicing jobs.
When Congress failed nearly a year ago to reauthorize EXIM for the first time in its history, we warned it would be disruptive to American jobs, and we were right.
As a result of the temporary lapse in authorization we saw jobs move to Canada and other countries that have competing export credit agencies.
Thankfully, the worst of that crisis was averted when Congress overwhelming expressed its bipartisan support for EXIM in December by reauthorizing it with important reforms. Unfortunately, EXIM has been inhibited from carrying out its mission and many of the important reforms we passed.
The Export-Import Bank provides U.S. businesses with loan guarantees, direct loans, and credit insurance when private lenders cannot or will not take on the risk. This frees up businesses to compete for goods and services in foreign markets which creates new jobs in the US and grows the economy.
In 2014, during a tour of companies in Missouri to advocate for the job-creating impact of the Export-Import Bank I heard from employees on how their company has been positively impacted by the Bank, and discussed ways the bank’s funding has allowed them to create jobs in Missouri and compete in the global marketplace.
From 2007 to 2015, the Export-Import Bank supported $2 billion in exports from more than a hundred Missouri exporters—65 percent of which were small businesses—and in 2014 the bank supported $27.4 billion in exports nationally and 164,000 American jobs.
