Trump sends Export-Import Bank nominees to Senate

(Defense News, Washington, 20 June 2017) U.S. President Donald Trump has formally nominated former members of Congress, Scott Garrett and Spencer Bachus, to two vacant positions on the U.S. Export-Import bank as expected, a win for the defense and aerospace sector.  Trump announced the move in April — a reversal after calling the federal government’s export credit agency “excess baggage” in 2015. Though the Heritage Foundation and some free-market conservatives have criticized the Ex-Im Bank as subsidizing foreign competitors of U.S. firms, the Aerospace Industries Association, touted it as vital to small- and medium-size companies. Among the largest export beneficiaries of the bank’s financial assistance have been Boeing and General Electric, which have overseas customers that use the agencies' government-backed loans to buy their products.