Export-Import Bank

Space technology industry executives last week told Export-Import Bank officials the agency should review its treatment of risk in their sector to allow for more flexibility when deciding whether to provide financing.

Renewable energy companies want the Export-Import Bank to broaden the agency’s U.S. content requirements so more of their contracts can qualify for financing and companies can better compete with China, industry representatives said during a bank teleconference this week.

The bank called the effort “one of the most significant programs in EXIM’s 86-year history.”

The economic downturn already underway as the world struggles to fight the coronavirus pandemic will engender a sharp contraction of U.S. and global trade flows that economists say could be mitigated -- somewhat -- by aggressive stimulus measures.

The House on Tuesday passed a government spending bill that would reauthorize the Export-Import Bank for seven years, create a program to boost U.S. competitiveness against China and allow presidential Cabinet members to step in and serve on the bank’s board temporarily at times when it would otherwise lack a quorum.

The Senate is likely to take up the bill before government funding expires on Thursday.

The exclusion of restrictive language on Chinese state-owned enterprises in an Export-Import Bank reauthorization bill crafted by House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) will not hinder the legislation’s success in the Senate, a member of the Senate Banking Committee said on Wednesday.

During a markup of a bill to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank on Tuesday, House Financial Services Committee ranking member Patrick McHenry (R-NC) proposed the same restrictions on Chinese state-owned enterprises that led to a previous bill’s demise.

Ex-Im Bank Advisory Committee Chairman Stevan Pearce last week decried the use of a continuing resolution as a vehicle for reauthorizing the bank’s charter -- an idea being floated by key lawmakers.