Chiding Congress in no uncertain terms, President Barack Obama warned Wednesday that American businesses are suffering while the Export-Import Bank lapses, and called on lawmakers to reauthorize the bank within days.
Obama told journalists that closing the 81-year-old government agency amounted to unilateral disarmament because “every other advanced country on Earth has a program like this”.
“We can not unilaterally disarm”, Obama said.
President Barack Obama speaks during a meeting with small business owners to discuss the importance of the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, July 22, 2015.
The Ex-Im Bank, designed to help U.S. businesses compete globally, closed for the first time in history on July 1 after Congress failed to pass legislation reauthorizing the bank’s charter.
Businesses that use the Export-Import Bank also have to pay a fee, Obama said, so the U.S. Treasury profits from its operations. He said leaving American companies “high and dry” made “absolutely no sense”. “But I’ll tell you what: This is actually something that matters to people on the ground”.
Obama on Wednesday plans to meet at the White House with owners of small- and medium-size businesses that have benefited from the bank. “We don’t really understand why we’re in this position”.
A renewal of the bank’s charter could be attached this month to an unrelated transportation funding bill, but not if Republican opponents like Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio can stop it.
“Ex-Im equips companies with financing they need to go toe-to-toe with foreign rivals, resulting in more exports and more well-paying jobs in cities and towns here in America, rather than overseas”, a White House official said recently.
But major differences between the House and Senate versions of the highway bill could delay an Ex-Im revival.
“This should be a no-brainer”, Obama said. The bank’s next chance for a reprieve would be a major government funding measure needed by September 30, the start of the new fiscal year and the date Ex-Im’s operating budget runs out.
