MERCEDES, RGV – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, also of Texas, have given very different reactions to a vote in the U.S. House on Tuesday to approve reauthorization of the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
A majority of Republicans joined almost all the Democrats in voting to revive the export-finance agency. The measure passed 313-118. Back in July the charter for the 81-year-old institution the Ex-Im Bank charter was allowed to expire by Congress.
Cruz, a Republican, did not like the way the vote went.
“Today was a win for the Washington Cartel and a loss for the American people. Just hours after lame-duck Speaker John Boehner joined with lame-duck President Obama in agreeing to bust the budget caps and add over a trillion dollars to our debt, the two teamed up again to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank,” Cruz said. “It’s time for the golden parachute to end. The Ex-Im Bank is a classic example of corporate welfare – over $100 billion in taxpayer-guaranteed loans, given primarily to a handful of giant corporations – and it had already rightly been allowed to expire.”
Cruz said the Senate has an opportunity to do the right thing. “Majority Leader McConnell has publicly promised not to bring Ex-Im reauthorization to the Senate floor. If he keeps that promise, then this cronyism will remain dead, and Leader McConnell will deserve the credit. If not, then Washington will have sadly once again reverted to government of the lobbyist, by the lobbyist, and for the lobbyist.”
Hinojosa, a Democrat from Mercedes in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, is a big supporter of the Export-Import Bank. Hinojosa says the bank is a crucial export financing source that supports home-grown businesses and hard-working Americans who wish to export American-made goods overseas. He was pleased with the House vote.
“The U.S. House of Representatives in a bipartisan majority reauthorized the Export-Import Bank which helps hard-working American workers and exporters across the country,” Hinojosa said. “I strongly support the re-authorization of the Export-Import Bank because it creates business opportunities and spurs job creation. In fact, 90 percent of all transactions involve small businesses. The Export-Import Bank keeps the USA competitive in the global marketplace.”
Hinojosa said the Export-Import Bank has helped to “level the playing field” for American workers and American businesses, big and small, to compete and succeed in the global economy. “It has created and supported hundreds of thousands of jobs over the years – all at no cost to taxpayers,” Hinojosa said.
“I was proud to cosponsor the reauthorization bill, sign the petition to discharge it from the hold placed on it by a small minority of Tea Party extremists, and to vote for it when it passed the House. The Senate should join the House and reauthorize the Export-Import Bank as soon as possible.”
Hinojosa added that the Export-Import Bank has been a “resounding market-driven success” — sustaining 1.5 million jobs since 2007 at no cost to taxpayers, supporting hundreds of thousands of American manufacturing jobs and, until recently, always enjoying the support of a bipartisan majority of Congress.
Editor’s Note: Click here to read the Wall Street Journal story about the House vote.
