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Export-Import Bank ends operations as Congress failed to reauthorize

By Andrew V. Pestano
Congress left for the July 4 recess before reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank of the United States. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
Congress left for the July 4 recess before reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank of the United States. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, June 30 (UPI) -- The Export-Import Bank of the United States will end operations Tuesday night as Congress failed to reauthorize its charter before the July 4 recess.

The bank assists American companies in selling their goods overseas by making loans and loan guarantees for the companies' foreign customers. Companies like Boeing, General Electric and 1,700 smaller companies use the Export-Import bank.

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Opponents of the bank amount its existence to "corporate welfare" and argue the bank meddles with free market principles.

"It is a culturally corrupt organization," Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee, said, according to Politico. "It is the worst of the federal government... And it's gotta go away."

Proponents of the bank argue that letting it die will cost American jobs and make American companies less competitive internationally.

Export-Import Chairman Fred Hochberg recently said that just the bank's charter expiring is already harming small businesses, which depend on it for credit insurance for overseas sales.

"You will see layoffs, you will see lost business -- and we are already seeing foreign governments and foreign companies start taking advantage of the uncertainty," Hochberg recently said, according to NPR.

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The bank will not be able to arrange new loans for the first time since it was implemented 81 years ago. Democrats and a few Republicans are attempting to renew the bank's charter, which could see the bank's rebirth by late July.

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