WASHINGTON, D.C. — The shutdown of the U.S. Export-Import Bank last week has drawn harsh criticism from U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV).
Manchin believes that by allowing the Bank’s charter to expire on July 1, Congress has put the United States at a competitive disadvantage purely to satisfy the goal of making government smaller.
“We don’t want any growth in government, government’s too big, it’s too intrusive, it’s overreaching,” said Senator Manchin during an interview on the MetroNews-affiliated “The Mike Queen Show” on the AJR News Network. “All those things are correct. So what do you do? You don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. You look to see what’s working and what’s not working.”
The bank claims, like Senator Manchin, that they’ve generated $7 billion more than their cost of operation over the past 20 years while supporting American small businesses, jobs, and exports.
“It’s made money, and how many agencies do we have that return money back to the Treasury to pay down our debt?” said Senator Manchin.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank was first authorized by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in an executive order back in 1934. In 1945, Congress voted to give the U.S. Export-Import Bank it’s autonomy as an independent agency. Their stated goal is to create and sustain U.S. jobs by financing and insuring the purchases of U.S. goods by foreign countries. On a very basic level, the bank’s goal is to open up new export markets that would be otherwise unavailable to American businesses.
That being said, Senator Manchin said he’s spoken with many business owners around the state who didn’t understand the advantages that could be available from the ExIm Bank.
“We had over 150 to 200 small businesses that never even knew about it,” said Manchin. “So we’ve done a poor job of promoting it and advertising it.”
It’s been credited with assisting the funding for the PanAmerican highway system that stretches from Alaska to Chile and assisting in the Reconstruction of Post-WWII Europe.
But now with it’s charter expired, the ExIm Bank has only enough money to operate through the end of September. They can’t engage in any new business. Senator Manchin said this will be a loss for small businesses in America.
“They’ll find different ways to survive, but it’s a shame the United States of America isn’t helping our own national businesses,” said Manchin.
Like all things, the ExIm Bank has not escaped criticism. Environmental groups have often been at odds with the Bank’s decision to finance fossil fuel projects overseas. Criticism has also been thrown at the bank for supporting only special interest groups, and failing to do as much for small businesses as claimed.
Forbes’ contributor Doug Bandow equated the bank’s operations to “corporate welfare” last year, and believes that the Bank’s claim of returning money to the treasury is likely a fiscal illusion.
On the contrary, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president Ray Conner said that failing to renew the charter will hurt his company. The ExIm Bank has also found unlikely support from President Obama, who campaigned against the Bank in 2008.
Unless their charter is renewed, the U.S. Export-Import Bank can’t engage in any new business.
The Bank’s official website says that they are fully appropriated for Fiscal Year 2015, which ends September 30.