GOP senator: Let Ex-Im Bank expire

Sen. Pat Toomey (Pa.) is urging his fellow Republican senators to let the Export-Import Bank expire.

“The Export-Import Bank is one of the most egregious forms of corporate welfare in our government, effectively allowing politically-favored companies to receive generous subsidies at the expense of other American businesses and workers,” Toomey wrote to his colleagues Friday, in a letter first obtained by The Hill.

{mosads}Toomey’s letter came after House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) met with Senate Republicans earlier this week urging them to oppose reauthorizing the bank’s charter, which expires June 30.

“I second Congressman Jeb Hensarling’s Wednesday Steering lunch sentiments,” Toomey wrote in the letter.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said that he will have a vote on the bank, despite his own personal opposition to it. Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) have introduced a reauthorization bill in the upper chamber.

It’s unclear whether the House will vote on the issue. Republicans are divided, with lawmakers like Toomey and Hensarling agreeing with Tea Party groups in saying the bank is corporate welfare.

But other Republicans like Sens. Kirk and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) argue with Democrats that the bank helps sustain U.S. jobs.