The U.S. House of Representatives on May 9 voted 330-93 to renew the charter of the Export-Import Bank of the United States for another three years and gradually raise the bank’s lending authority to $140 billion.
The Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2012 (H.R. 2072) would immediately raise the bank’s lending authority to $120 billion followed by $10 billion increases in 2013 and 2014 contingent on the bank’s default rate staying below 2 percent.
The bill now goes to the Senate, where opposition from some Republicans who view the bank’s export financing as a form of corporate welfare forced Majority
Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to delay votes on the measure until the week of May 14.
The bank’s charter expires May 31 without congressional action. The governmentbacked
loans and credit guarantees the bank provides U.S. companies have played an increasingly common role in the overseas sales of many aerospace products, including satellites.
