The Patriot Post® · House Pushes Ex-Im Bank Reauthorization Closer to Passage

Congress let the Export-Import Bank pass away June 30, but more than a few lawmakers are fighting tooth and nail to bring the 81-year-old zombie bank back from the dead. Using a procedure that usually has a snowball’s chance of working when Congress is headed by strong leadership, Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN) forced a vote to authorize the Ex-Im Bank by filing a discharge petition the day before Speaker John Boehner announced he was stepping down. Enough Democrats, aided by a group of Republicans who splintered from the fragmented caucus, signed the petition to bring up legislation reauthorizing the bank, against the wishes of Republican leadership.

On Monday, the House voted 246 to 177 to consider reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank. If the legislation makes its way to the upper chamber, about 70 senators support the bank, according to The Washington Post.

> Update: The House passed reauthorization Tuesday.

The potential incoming speaker, Rep. Paul Ryan, stands against the institution. “The bank is just one example of how bureaucratic government is corrupting free enterprise through and through,” Ryan said last year. “Conservatives must stop defending this. Cronyism is the Progressives’ project for economic control.”

While the Left argues the bank helps small businesses peddle their wares internationally, the largest benefactors of the bank are mega companies like GE and Boeing. And contrary to the Left’s saccharine assumptions, Ex-Im loans don’t prevent those companies from moving offshore.