The U.S. House of Representatives, casting off its year-long dysfunction, on Thursday passed a five-year, $305 billion transportation bill that includes a provision reviving the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
The legislation moved across the U.S. Capitol and was passed late last night by the Senate. It goes to President Obama for signature.
The renewal of “Ex-Im” It ends a year-long saga in which a minority of ultraconservative House Republicans — backed by the political network of billionaires Charles and David Koch — tried to kill an agency that underwrites billions of dollars of U.S. exports.
The Boeing Co. is the country’s biggest exporter of manufacturing products with sales of passenger jets to foreign airlines. Loans guaranteed by the Export-Import Bank have underwritten billions of dollars worth of those sales.
“It is inexcusable that House leadership allowed this vital program to expire for more than five months, leaving thousands of American businesses and workers at a competitive disadvantage on the world stage,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash.
Not only was the House unable to renew the Export-Import Bank — its charter expired on June 30 — but it has limped along for nearly a decade without approving a national transportation and infrastructure program.
“Unfortunately, rather than acting like adults and coming up with a long-term solution, Congress has voted more than 30 times for short-term transportation bills — seeking to fix out transportation issues with duct tape and plugging in three months of investment at a time,” said Rep. Derek Kilmer. “That’s no way to do business.
“Today, we sent the president a bill that gets closer to solving our long-term challenges.”
The final House vote Thursday was 359-65. All 65 No votes came from Republicans. The No’s included Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, who refused to let his panel vote on legislation renewing the Export-Import Bank.
The larger transportation package holds dollars for Washington, a state largely dependent on an infrastructure that dates to the 1960’s.
The legislation will send $3.5 billion in highway funding to the Evergreen State, as well as $1.2 billion in transit dollars. It includes $400 million for ferries, of which Washington has the largest marine transportation system. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., estimated last night that $17.9 million in support will come annually, important to a stretched ferry system.
“This deal will increase investment, improve our ferry system, establish new programs to make our freight mobility safer and more efficient, and support new investments in public transit,” said Murray.
“Ex-Im” produced a marquee struggle between several of the country’s richest conservative Washington, D.C., lobbies.
Pitted against the export bank were such groups as the Club for Growth, Heritage Foundation and Freedom Rising. The bank’s supporters included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers.
Major corporate political donors began to refrain from giving money and buying tickets to fundraisers for such anti-Ex-Im congressmen as Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the House Majority Leader.
And there were serious consequences for ordinary American workers. General Electric moved 500 jobs out of the country, to other nations still supporting their major exporters. Boeing lost a paid of satellite contracts and complained that the Export-Import Bank’s expiration had jeopardized $3 billion in jet sales to Ethiopian Airlines and South Africa-based Comair.
Sens. Murray and Cantwell specialized in holding events around the state spotlighting the importance of Ex-Im Bank financing to small business exporters such as a Ballard brewery.
Ultimately, Export-Import Bank supporters resorted to a so-called discharge petition. They persuaded 218 House members, a majority, to sign a petition removing the bank from jurisdiction by Hensarling’s committee and forcing a floor vote.
Six Democratic House members from Washington signed the discharge petition. So did Republican Reps. Dave Reichert and Dan Newhouse.
Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., did not sign the petition. McMorris Rodgers, a member of the House Republican leadership, spurned home state colleagues who urged that she take an active role on behalf of the Export Import Bank.
With victory secured last night, Cantwell was in a celebratory mood, saying, “Finally, common sense prevailed over extreme partisan politics in favor of American businesses and workers.”
Both Republicans and Democrats voiced relief that the country is finally getting a long-term transportation bill.
“We saw firsthand how a collapsed bridge in Skagit County impacted our local economy, which is why we must fix our infrastructure now before it’s more expensive to maintain in the future,” said DelBene.