Manufacturers knock Warren’s Ex-Im slam

The manufacturing industry on Wednesday defended the Export-Import Bank against attacks from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that it isn’t doing enough for small businesses.

The politically embattled bank, whose charter is set to expire June 30, is required to finance at least 20 percent of its portfolio to small businesses, a quota it failed to meet in three of the last four fiscal years, as Warren noted during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

“We should push the bank to do more for small businesses. … We should hold the Ex-Im Bank accountable if it fails to reach those goals,” she said.

{mosads}”[Warren] did not call me about this,” Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), said at a press conference the next day. “Had she called me, I would’ve said, ‘Senator, thank you for your concern, but this is a solution in search of a problem.’ “

Daryl Bouwkamp, a senior director at the Vermeer Corp., said at the same conference that the threshold would “actually hurt small businesses.” He argued that they benefit when big businesses like Boeing secure Ex-Im financing because smaller businesses are part of the economic supply chain.

“If a large company wins a big deal, we’re happy for them and we’re happy for our country and we’re happy for the small and medium-sized businesses that will benefit in their supply chain,” Bouwkamp said at the press conference.

He said that such a threshold or a mechanical ratio could “actually work in the contrary to its intent.”

A bipartisan Senate Ex-Im reauthorization bill from Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) would increase that threshold to 25 percent. The NAM supports the renewal, but isn’t taking a position on the threshold provision.

Republicans are divided about whether to reauthorize the bank. The NAM has worked along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to argue that the bank’s charter should be extended because of how its financing sustains jobs throughout the economy.

The NAM and the Chamber have fought against Tea Party groups like Heritage Action and Freedom Partners, which oppose the bank and argue that it picks favorites in choosing which businesses to finance.

“We view this as a test,” Timmons said. “You are either for us or against us.”

“I had a member of Congress tell me last night that he was going to be primaried on this issue,” he added. “And he looked at me and said, ‘I look forward to the primary because my slogan is going to be that I voted for jobs.’ That’s pretty simple.”

More than 1,000 business organizations sent a letter to lawmakers on Wednesday urging for Ex-Im to be reauthorized, Timmons noted.

But House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), whose panel has jurisdiction over moving a reauthorization bill, reiterated his opposition against the bank at a hearing later on Wednesday.

“To support more robust economic growth, economic justice, and equal opportunity for all, it is time to wind down Ex-Im,” Hensarling said at the hearing. “By reauthorizing Ex-Im, my Democratic colleagues are simply throwing Wall Street a big, wet kiss.”