Hoyer: ‘Almost every Democrat’ will support procedural move to revive Ex-Im

Democrats will provide near-unanimous support in the effort to force a vote on reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday.
 
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) hasn’t committed to a vote on renewing the bank, leading its Republican supporters to take a rare stab at sidestepping their own party leaders to force the bill to the floor with a discharge petition.
 
{mosads}That effort, led by Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.), would require the endorsement of 218 lawmakers.
 
Hoyer said the Democrats would provide a vast majority of those signatures — provided Fincher can find a sufficient number of Republicans to make up the difference.
 
“I expect a large number of Republicans and I expect almost every Democrat [will sign the petition],” Hoyer, the House Democratic whip, told reporters in the Capitol. “We will want to support that effort.”
 
The Ex-Im Bank, which greases the export market by providing federal financing for U.S.-made products sold overseas, expired June 30.
 
Although it once enjoyed broad bipartisan support, the bank has grown more controversial in recent years with the rise of conservatives who say it’s a form of corporate welfare that encroaches on free markets.
 
Congress’s chief opponent of the bank, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), is also head of the House Financial Services Committee, putting him in the perfect place to block it. Bolstering Hensarling’s position is House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a one-time Ex-Im supporter who now opposes renewing the charter.
 
In 2012, behind former Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), GOP leaders rebuffed critics such as Hensarling and renewed the bank’s charter. This time around, Boehner has left Hensarling in the driver’s seat.  
 
Empowered, the Texas Republican has not considered a reauthorization bill, and GOP leaders have not pushed him to do so.
 
Fincher, the lead sponsor of legislation to renew Ex-Im’s charter, thinks that’s a mistake. Last week, after months of pressing leadership to bring a bill to the floor, he launched his discharge petition effort.
 
“We’ve got no choice,” he said. “We need a vote.”
 
It’s unclear how many GOP signatures Fincher can manage. Although scores of Republicans support the Ex-Im Bank, not all of them will take the aggressive step of bucking their leaders by signing the petition.
 
The supporters, though, are increasingly optimistic about their chances of getting 218 signatures.
 
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a vocal supporter of the bank, said last week that she likes the odds.
 
“If Republicans have enough people on their discharge petition, then we will join in and then go from there,” she said. “And I’m optimistic that they will from what I hear on the other side.”
 
Both sides will know soon enough. Hoyer said the discharge petition becomes eligible for lawmaker signatures beginning Friday.