Senate votes to revive Export-Import Bank

Erin Kelly | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Monday to revive the Export-Import Bank as part of a bigger bill to fund the nation's crumbling roads and bridges.

Senators voted 64-29 to approve an amendment to renew the bank's charter, which expired June 30.

However, the action could make it even more difficult for the Senate to convince the House to take up the highway bill this week. The Highway Trust Fund — which reimburses states for road and mass transit projects — is set to run out of money Friday unless Congress can agree on legislation to keep it going.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Monday the House would not take up the Senate measure before the House adjourns on Thursday for its annual August recess. He urged the Senate to quickly pass a House-approved bill, which provides $8 billion to keep the Highway Trust Fund going through Dec. 18, while leaders work to forge agreement on a six-year bill.

McCarthy did not rule out Congress agreeing to an even shorter extension but said the House bill is the "easiest, best way to move forward."

House leaders are even more hostile to the idea of a highway bill that would also revive the Export-Import Bank. The bank is opposed by many Tea Party-oriented House Republicans, who see it as corporate welfare that goes against free market principles. Most Democrats, and traditional pro-business Republicans, support the bank as a way to create jobs by bolstering American exports.

The 81-year-old bank was created during the Great Depression to lend money to U.S. exporters and their foreign customers. Most nations that compete economically with the United States — including China, Germany and France — have similar banks.

Business groups worry that American companies will be less competitive globally unless Congress revives the institution.

Even in the Senate, where the Ex-Im Bank is much more popular than it is in the House, it has caused bitter debate.

Last Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a Tea Party favorite and GOP presidential candidate, accused Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., of lying about making a deal with Democrats to allow a vote on the bank in exchange for Democratic support of a "fast track" trade authority bill last month. McConnell said Sunday that he never made any such deal.

Meanwhile, at least seven states have halted highway construction because they cannot count on the federal government to provide its share of funding for more than a few months at a time.

McConnell said Congress must stop passing short-term fixes, which it has done more than 30 times since 2009. Instead, he and Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., came up with a bipartisan bill that would authorize highway funding for six years while providing enough funding — about $47 billion — to keep the Highway Trust Fund going for three more years.

Boxer said the House should stay in session the first week in August — as the Senate plans to do — to try to pass the multi-year bill.

"I know you want to get out of town," she said to House leaders. "But you know what? You can stay an extra week in August. That's not such a terrible thing."

Contributing: Susan Davis

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