Hensarling presses Senate to end Ex-Im

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) urged senators on Wednesday to let the Export-Import Bank’s charter expire on June 30.

Hensarling made the pitch at a private meeting of the Republican Senate Steering Committee, which was attended by about 35 Republican senators, according to a House GOP aide.

{mosads}“He focused much of his presentation on the culture of corruption that surrounds Ex-Im, with its record of 85 indictments since 2009 and 41 open investigations into corruption and fraud,” the aide said.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the committee’s chairman, invited Hensarling to speak.

Hensarling has spoken to more than 100 House Republicans this Congress urging them not to support the bank, the aide said.

Republicans are divided over Ex-Im’s future, with GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Mark Kirk (Ill.) siding with Democrats and the business community in arguing that the bank helps create U.S. jobs by helping American companies make inroads in emerging markets.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said that he will bring Ex-Im’s reauthorization up for a vote, despite his personal opposition to it. It’s unclear whether House leadership will follow suit.

Hensarling, whose panel has jurisdiction on the issue, hasn’t said if he will move a bill through his committee.

Ex-Im President Fred Hochberg is slated to testify before members of the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday.

He will again seek to argue that the bank helps small businesses.

“In 1983, Congress enacted a small business mandate as a percentage of the Bank’s loan, guarantee, and insurance authority,” Hochberg wrote in his testimony, obtained by The Hill. “This required the Bank to make available not less than 6 percent of such authority in fiscal year 1984, 8 percent in fiscal year 1985, and 10 percent in fiscal year 1986 and thereafter.”

Hochberg noted in his submitted testimony that Congress increased the percentage in 2002 to 20 percent. 

“Ex-Im Bank has approved more small business financing over the past six years than in the previous 16 years combined,” Hochberg wrote.

He will argue that “rising competition and an ever-globalizing world have made Ex-Im Bank more vital than ever for reducing the risks faced by American exporters so that they can unleash opportunity in the form of new jobs.

“I look forward to continuing to work with you on empowering your constituents to export, grow, and hire more American workers,” he wrote.