Ex-Im opponent warns conservatives to ‘stay vigilant’ in charter fight

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) warned conservatives on Wednesday to stay vigilant to ensure that supporters of the Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank don’t “sneak through” a reauthorization bill in the coming weeks.

Jordan said “conservatives must now stay vigilant to ensure this is not just a temporary victory.”

{mosads}”Conservatives know that the Bank’s supporters will try to sneak through reauthorization language in an unrelated bill in the days to come,” he said in a statement.

He said that the bank was the “bridge to nowhere of corporate welfare” and called the expiration of the agency’s charter on Wednesday a “great day for taxpayers around the country who are fed up with cronyism in Washington.”

Jordan and other conservatives in Congress have vehemently opposed the bank, arguing it distorts the marketplace by picking winners and losers. They succeeded in preventing a renewal of the charter from moving through Congress before July 1 and are now fighting to kill off the agency for good.

But their triumph could be short-lived, as both critics and supports of Ex-Im expect lawmakers to attach an amendment to a transportation funding bill next in the coming weeks to extend its charter.

The business community has backed centrist Republicans and Democrats in advocating for Ex-Im’s federally backed financing, arguing it helps sustain jobs for small businesses in the U.S.

Jordan said business backing for Ex-Im shows why it should be scrapped.

“The bank has long been emblematic of Washington working for special interests and not for everyday Americans,” the Ohio Republican said. “The end of the Ex-Im Bank illustrates that conservative ideas — opportunity for all and limited government — resonate with people around the country.”