Bipartisan group of House lawmakers urge action on Export-Import Bank nominees

(The Hill, Washington, 20 Feb 2018) A bipartisan group of 68 House lawmakers are urging Senate leaders to get the Export-Import Bank running at full speed again. In December, the Senate Banking Committee approved four nominees to the Ex-Im board — Kimberly Reed, Spencer Bachus, Judith Pryor and Claudia Slacik. Since 2015, the Ex-Im Bank has been without a quorum on its board, which prohibits the agency from making deals of more than $10 million. Without a quorum in fiscal 2017, the bank only authorized $2.4 billion in loans, guarantees and insurance, supporting just 2,412 exporters, 40,000 jobs and $7.4 billion in U.S. export sales, the letter said. That is a sharp decline from 2014, when the bank approved $20.5 billion in business, which supported 3,563 exporters, 165,000 jobs, and $27.5 billion in exports.