Three House Dems call for Trump to withdraw nominee to lead Ex-Im Bank

Three House Democrats on Tuesday called on President Trump to withdraw his nominee to lead the Export-Import Bank.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.), along with Reps. Gwen Moore (Wis.) and Denny Heck (Wash.), sent a letter to the president expressing their opposition to the nomination of former Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) to head the 83-year-old bank.

“Given your expressed intention of making the U.S. more competitive the nomination of Mr. Garrett makes no sense,” they wrote.

The Democrats argue that Garrett, who represented New Jersey’s 5th District from 2003 to 2017, was a leading critic of the Ex-Im Bank and tried to shut down the agency while he was in Congress. 

{mosads}“If confirmed as chairman of the board, Mr. Garrett would have wide latitude to control the board’s agenda and substitute his personal views for the statutory mission of the bank, destroying it from within after failing in his efforts to persuade his colleagues to legislate its demise,” the lawmakers wrote.

Ex-Im supports tens of thousands of jobs while sending its profits to the U.S. Treasury, the lawmakers said. 

Garrett’s nomination is facing increasing opposition from national and state business groups.

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the Business Roundtable, a group of the nation’s top CEOs, are among the business groups opposing Garrett.

Earlier this month Jay Timmons, NAM’s president and CEO, wrote a scathing op-ed in The Wall Street Journal calling on Garrett to withdraw his name from consideration.

Business groups, Democrats and some Republicans have battled with more conservative members of Congress over the past two years in trying to get the bank back to full strength after a nearly six-month shutdown in 2015.

In October 2015, Hoyer, Moore and Heck were among a bipartisan group of lawmakers who managed to find a path to reauthorizing the bank.

But a lack of a quorum on the bank’s board has hampered the agency from making deals over $10 million, a growing part of its business. 

“Unfortunately, for the past two years the bank has been unable to approve transactions worth more than $10 million, precisely the type of deals where the need to offset foreign export credit agency financing is most pronounced,” the lawmakers wrote.

“Worse, U.S. companies are starting to move production to offshore locations where they can benefit from the services of foreign export credit agencies,” they wrote.

“In fact, for some infrastructure and other large deals, U.S. firms cannot even bid without the backing of Ex-Im Bank financing.”

The bank guarantees loans for U.S. companies doing business in foreign countries.