Can Boeing Sway Reauthorization for Export-Import Bank?

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: March 10, 2015 9:10 am

Last Updated: April 27, 2020 6:23 pm

The U.S. Export-Import Bank dodged a bullet last September when its charter was temporarily reauthorized at the last minute, breathing life into the 80-year old institution until June 30, 2015. Dodging that next bullet may be even trickier because Congress can kill the bank by doing nothing, something it has proved to be quite good at.

According to the bank’s latest annual report, in 2014 the Ex-Im Bank approved 3,746 authorizations for a total value of $20.5 billion. Of that dollar total, $18.52 billion comprised guarantees, insurance and working capital, and $1.95 billion was authorized as direct loans. The bank said the 2014 authorizations created or sustained 164,000 U.S. jobs.

The bank’s biggest beneficiary is Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), which received more than $6.1 billion in loan guarantees last year out of a total authorization of $10.79 billion. It is that dominance that has earned the Ex-Im Bank the derisive nickname of “The Bank of Boeing.”

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While the amount of the bank’s authorizations for Boeing might indicate that there is some truth to that, the bank also provided authorizations to 3,347 small businesses in 2014 in the amount of $5.1 billion. That is nearly 90% of authorizations and about 25% of authorized funds.

Critics of the bank are led by Tea Party conservatives who claim that the Ex-Im Bank is nothing but pure crony capitalism. U.S. airlines are another group that opposes reauthorizing the bank.

On the other side, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and more than 40 other groups support a full five-year reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank.

The bank claims it sent the U.S. Treasury $675 million in surplus revenues in 2014 and that it has generated nearly $7 billion in excess revenues that have gone to the Treasury since 1992 to help reduce the federal budget deficit. The bank has been self-sustaining since 2008, funding itself “entirely from receipts collected from customers who borrow from the Bank.”

During the reauthorization battle last fall, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services estimated that Boeing would have to find another way to finance an additional $3.5 billion to $5.5 billion in export sales if the Ex-Im Bank is not reauthorized.

The second stage of the fight over the bank is just getting started, and the action will heat up as the June deadline approaches. All that House conservatives need to do is muster the troops to prevent a reauthorization bill from coming to a vote on the House floor. If they can do even that much, the Ex-Im Bank is finished.

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