Senate Dems ramping up pressure for vote on Ex-Im Bank nominee

A group of Senate Democrats on Thursday blasted Republicans who are opposed to considering a nominee to the Export-Import Bank board.

Five Democrats took to the Senate floor and called on Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) to vote on the nomination of Mark McWatters, which could provide the agency’s board with the quorum needed to make larger loans.

{mosads}But Shelby, who is opposed to the Ex-Im Bank and has shown no interest in considering the nomination, objected to their unanimous consent request to hold a Senate vote on McWatters, who was nominated in January by President Obama. 

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) said that Democrats have been pushing for months to convince Shelby to take a vote on the McWatters, a Republican and former staffer of House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who also opposes the bank. 

Democrats’ frustrations started boiling over in the past month, with several members of the Banking Committee, including Heitkakmp, opposing nominations they would have otherwise supported in protest of Shelby’s inaction. 

Heitkamp said Democrats’ level of frustration has risen to an “unparalleled” level in the fight over the nomination.

She said that opposed Republicans are “hiding the nomination” in the Banking committee despite supermajorities in the House and Senate that backed the bank’s four-year reauthorization last year.

The Ex-Im Bank needs McWatters to be confirmed to reach a three-person quorum on its five-member board.

Until then, the agency can’t approve loans for more than $10 million, making it difficult for many U.S. firms — large and small — to get the financing guarantees they need.

Ex-Im has more than 30 pending transactions in the pipeline valued at more than $10 billion. All require the board’s approval because each exceeds the $10 million threshold, the agency told The Hill.

In April, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who also opposes the 82-year-old agency, said that he was willing to consider the nominee if the committee sends it to the floor.

So with time running out before a long summer recess, Democrats are ramping up pressure on Shelby and other Republicans to give McWatters a vote.

But the latest push didn’t seem to make any inroads even as Democrats made the case that the lack of the board’s quorum is hurting U.S. manufacturers and shipping jobs overseas. 

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who opposes the bank and stands with Shelby’s decision to hold up the nominee, spoke on the floor and called the bank a “depression era relic” that is “an 82-year-old case study in corporate welfare.”

Lee argued that the agency should be eliminated because it “fosters cozy relationships between political and economic insiders” and is “a breeding ground for cronyism and corruption.”

But Heitkamp shot back that the bank mostly helps small- to medium-sized businesses and that U.S. companies need the bank to be competitive overseas or face losing global ground. 

Conservatives have long argued that the bank focuses its attention on large companies like Boeing. 

But Heitkamp said that North Dakota has 16 suppliers for Boeing, all of which would be hurt by a drop in Boeing’s business.

“When I go to bed at night I don’t think about Boeing and GE executives, I think about that person on the factory line who is working every day putting food on the table for their children and how this dysfunction here is costing them their livelihood and their security,” she said.

“That is a tragedy that we can’t ignore.”

Earlier this week, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) sent more than 300 of its members up to Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to take a vote on McWatters among discussing other top trade priorities.

“Manufacturers of all sizes rely on a fully functioning Ex-Im Bank to help them compete on a level global playing field, which is why having a quorum on the bank’s board of directors remains a critical priority for the NAM,” said Linda Dempsey, NAM’s vice president of international economic affairs.

“We support the efforts of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to ensure Ex-Im is operating at full capacity, and urge the Senate to take action on the pending board nomination,” Dempsey said.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that the lack of inaction on the McWatters nomination is costing the United States $50 million a day in exports and is sending a signal that Congress doesn’t care about keeping U.S. jobs here. 

“To purposely prevent the Ex-Im Bank from being able to properly function is like having America unilaterally disarm,” Schumer said. 

Schumer said that if opposed Republicans dig in on denying McWatters a vote that he doesn’t “want to hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle talking about how they care about jobs, how they care about building America and building our exports as long as they continue to play this trick and hamstringing the Ex-Im Bank from functioning.”

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) had harsh words for the Senate Banking Committee leadership for stymying efforts to approve another board member.

“By not moving forward on a full functioning credit agency in the United States all you’re doing is helping to ship jobs overseas,” Cantwell said.

“It’s got to stop,” she said. 

Sen. Patty Murray, a fellow Washington Democrat, blamed political posturing for handicapping the bank’s operations.

“It’s time for my colleagues to put ideology aside and allow this proven program to operate at its full capacity to allow a vote that we were denied today to get the Ex-Im Bank operating again,” she said. 

Democrats weren’t the only lawmakers looking for ways to get the bank’s board back to a quorum. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday that he had proposed an amendment to the defense authorization bill that would give the bank’s board a quorum but it wasn’t considered germane. 

“I asked for an amendment on this bill to change that and to get us back in the game on the Ex-Im Bank,” he said on the floor. 

This story was updated at 5 p.m.