Senate Panel Rejects Trump's Nominee to Lead Export-Import Bank

(New York Times, Washington, 19 December 2017) Two Republican senators broke with their party to block President Trump’s nominee to lead the Export-Import Bank, a setback for the White House that reflects deep divisions in the Republican Party over the role that the government should play in steering the United States economy toward prosperity. The nominee, Scott Garrett, a former representative and a Republican from New Jersey who had wanted to see the government’s export credit agency shuttered, was rejected by the Senate Banking Committee in a 13-to-10 vote. Since 2015, the agency has been hobbled by a lack of personnel necessary to approve projects over $10 million, formerly the bulk of the agency’s work. An estimated $42.2 billion worth of deals are stuck in the pipeline waiting for approval, which could support an estimated 250,000 American jobs, a spokeswoman for the Export-Import Bank said. Some of the biggest Ex-Im customers are General Electric, Boeing and Caterpillar, Some senators and the Trump administration have threatened to pull the other board nominees, leaving the bank without a quorum and barred from financing deals over $10 million and Boeing to fend for itself. However, in 2017 the Aircraft Finance Insurance Consortium has supported more than $1 billion of new airplane deliveries and Boeing has 661 firm orders for 2018, in addition to 6,600 backorders. Meanwhile it has been said that Boeing is upset that Garrett was getting help throughout the nomination process from Dan Murphy, a lobbyist for a high-powered Washington firm that counts Airbus among its clients.