A single senator stymies the Export-Import Bank
“It’s very troubling to me, and I think a lot of others, that one person can hijack a process and keep the export credit agency from functioning in the United States when two-thirds of Congress support it,” Rice said.
Two weeks ago, GE announced it would expand manufacturing of gas turbines in France rather than Greenville, South Carolina, in return for French export financing for sales in countries including Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Mexico.
In September, GE announced a flurry of moves: creating up to 1,000 jobs in the Czech Republic to produce turboprop aircraft engines; shifting 500 powerproject jobs from Texas, South Carolina, Maine and New York to France, Hun- gary and China; promising 1,000 energy-sector jobs in Britain, whose export bank will finance up to $12 billion in GE sales to Brazil, Ghana, India and Mozambique; and relocating 350 engine manufacturing jobs from Waukesha, Wisconsin, to a new factory in Canada.
“Is it going to put GE out of business? Absolutely not,” Rice said. “We can go to a plant in France, or a plant in Switzerland and Germany.”
But, he added, “A lot of our suppliers can’t come with us.”
Boeing is working with Britain’s agency to finance airplane purchases for unspecified customers, on the condition that Boeing use Rolls-Royce engines. A company based in Bermuda canceled a contract for satellites, a company in Singapore declined Boeing’s bids to sell satellites and Ethiopian Airlines wrote the manufacturer that the lack of Ex-Im Bank financing threatened “our ability to purchase Boeing aircraft in the future.”
Shelby was unavailable over several days to discuss the issue, a spokeswoman said. She instead provided a statement that the senator “believes that his actions are in the best interest of the American taxpayer.”
“Nearly 99 percent of all American exports are financed without the Ex-Im Bank,” it said, “which demonstrates that the bank is more about corporate welfare than advancing our economy.”
The bank makes money, through proceeds from its loans and insurance lines, but conservatives cite the risks to taxpayers. The bank’s chairman, Fred P. Hochberg, said he had not talked with Shelby all year, adding, “In Washington, not returning a call is an art form.”
Especially in the developing world, some countries require that exporters bidding for sales have backing from an export credit agency. So some U.S. companies are seeking or accepting support from foreign agencies, which in turn require bidders to create jobs in their countries.
Boeing did win a contract with VietJet for 100 U.S.-made aircraft, a deal announced during Obama’s visit to Vietnam in May. Financing will be arranged closer to delivery, leaving open the question of whether the ExIm Bank will help.
Foreign carriers like VietJet “continue to believe that the United States wouldn’t be so foolish as to dismantle its Export-Import Bank,” said Tim D. Neale, a Boeing spokesman. “But the other issue is to what degree does this have a chilling effect on ongoing sales campaigns for future deliveries?”
Also in May, a Boeing official at its facility in Alabama publicly criticized Shelby, saying he was putting local jobs and suppliers at risk.
Shelby has stood firm, endearing him to conservative anti-government groups crusading to close the bank — and known to spend freely against politicians who cross them. Their blessing was especially important to the senator as he faced a conservative challenger in Alabama’s March Republican primary. Shelby suggested to colleagues and reporters that he would let his committee act on the Ex-Im board nominee afterward.
“He said, ‘I can’t do this before the primary,’ ” said Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the senior Democrat on the banking committee. “We took that to mean he’d do it after he won his primary.”
Yet Shelby continues to block Senate confirmation of J. Mark McWatters, formerly an aide to the Republican chairman of the House Banking Committee.
Senate Democrats recently tried to force a Senate vote, bypassing Shelby’s committee, but they needed the Senate’s unanimous consent. Shelby objected, without further word.
“This is old school politics, right? — ‘I’m the chairman and I can decide,’ ” said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.
She added, “I don’t go to bed worrying about the executives at Boeing or GE, because guess what? They have options. The American worker doesn’t have options.”