Export bank grounded: U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Congressman Brendan Boyle met at a Northeast helicopter factory on June 22 to demand that their colleagues re-start a federal program that helps American-based exporters remain competitive in the international marketplace. WILLIAM KENNY / TIMES PHOTO
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Congressman Brendan Boyle met at Northeast Philadelphia’s state-of-the-art helicopter factory last week, but it wasn’t so they could test fly the new AgustaWestland 609 TiltRotor, which could start rolling off the assembly line later this summer.
Rather, Casey and Boyle were there on June 22 to demand that their colleagues reauthorize a federal program that helps American-based exporters like AgustaWestland to remain competitive in the international marketplace. Despite their pleas, legislators allowed public funding for the nation’s Export-Import Bank to lapse on June 30, although plans may be afoot to re-start the program once Congress reconvenes after Independence Day.
“This is not the time for partisan games,” Boyle (D-13th dist.) said following a tour of AgustaWestland’s plant outside of Northeast Airport. “Now is the time for a long-term reauthorization to renew, reenergize and reform the bank so that it can continue supporting jobs across the country.”
“I think AgustaWestland is one of the companies here in Philadelphia, here in Southeastern Pennsylvania and across our commonwealth and our country that benefits tremendously from the Ex-Im Bank,” Casey (D-PA) said. “The Export-Import Bank has to be, must be reauthorized. It’s essential.”
Ex-Im Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg joined the lawmakers and AgustaWestland executives for the facility tour.
Created eight decades ago, the Ex-Im Bank is U.S. government’s official export credit agency. It supports American exports by providing financing to foreign purchasers and by insuring private sector loans issued to those purchasers.
Critics argue that the program gives chosen companies an unfair competitive advantage over other American companies — that the bank artificially determines “winners” and “losers” in the marketplace. U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican, is one of those opponents. As the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the bank, Hensarling has refused to allow a reauthorization bill to be put to a committee vote, Boyle said. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, also opposes reauthorization, according to a June 24 Bloomberg.com report.
Nonetheless, reauthorization has broad support among Democrats and among many Republicans, but not the Tea Party faction.
“We have to make sure we don’t allow some in Washington to put ideology ahead of job creation, to put ideology ahead of the reauthorization of an entity which benefits job creation in Pennsylvania and across our country,” Casey said.
In Fiscal Year 2014, the bank authorized $20.5 billion in financing to support $27.5 billion in American exports. Those exports helped sustain more than 164,000 American jobs.
While many large manufacturers like Boeing and General Electric benefit from Ex-Im Bank authorizations, almost 90 percent of authorizations in 2014 served small American businesses. Small business authorizations accounted for about one-fourth of the total by dollar value. The bank helps finance less than 2 percent of all American exports.
Despite receiving federal funding, the bank doesn’t cost taxpayers in the end because it generates money from fees and interest. In 2014, it recorded a $675 million surplus.
There are about 60 foreign export credit agencies that similarly support companies that compete directly against American exporters.
Boyle noted that the bank benefits 13 companies in his congressional district, which includes Northeast Philadelphia and Eastern Montgomery County. In 2009, the bank helped the government of Trinidad and Tobago borrow $80 million to buy four AgustaWestland helicopters for that nation’s Air Guard. In 2011 and ’13, the bank helped a Brazilian company borrow a combined $76 million to buy four AgustaWestland helicopters. Earlier this year, a Colombian company bought one AgustaWestland helicopter with financial support from Ex-Im.
“AgustaWestland is a shining example of the best of American manufacturing, an example of a company that’s on the upswing in an area that has only added jobs,” Boyle said.
Three days after the Casey-Boyle appearance, the U.S. House held its final session before the June 30 Ex-Im deadline, but legislators did not vote on reauthorization. Hensarling reportedly called the lapse “a small step toward renewing a competitive free-market economy.”
However, House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said last week that a reauthorization bill could be attached to other “must-pass” legislation such as a transportation bill later this month. Until then, the bank will be able to administer existing accounts, but will not be able to authorize new financing.
“Every pragmatic member of Congress is in favor of this Export-Import Bank continuing,” Boyle said. “Unfortunately, you have the reauthorization being held hostage by the ideologues.” ••
Export bank grounded: U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Congressman Brendan Boyle met at a Northeast helicopter factory on June 22 to demand that their colleagues re-start a federal program that helps American-based exporters remain competitive in the international marketplace. WILLIAM KENNY / TIMES PHOTO
