NAM urges states to oppose Ex-Im Bank nomination

The National Association of Manufacturers took to the airwaves this week in South Carolina, South Dakota and Nevada, urging citizens of those states to contact their senators to oppose Scott Garrett’s nomination to president of the U.S. Export-Import Bank.    The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) took to the airwaves this week by posting radio and online advertisements in South Carolina, South Dakota and Nevada to drum up public support to pressure those states’ Senate lawmakers on Capitol Hill to withdraw Scott Garrett’s nomination for U.S. Export-Import Bank president and chairman.
   “Scott Garrett voted to kill the Ex-Im Bank over a dozen times while he was in Congress, which amounts to a vote to send South Carolina manufacturers and jobs overseas,” NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said in the South Carolina ad. “Senators [Lindsey] Graham and [Tim] Scott can’t trust Scott Garrett with the future success of South Carolina’s manufacturers, workers and economy, and they should oppose his nomination.”
   The three states are not just the home of companies which have traditionally relied on Ex-Im Bank to back financing for multimillion-dollar export deals, they also have U.S. senators with influence over the nomination process.
   President Trump nominated Garrett, a former House lawmaker from New Jersey, in mid-April to lead the Ex-Im Bank, which provides financing in the form of loan guarantees, credit insurance and direct loans to buyers of U.S. exports, as well as working capital guarantees and credit insurance to mostly small and midsized U.S. exporters.
   Then-Rep. Garrett was part of a handful of lawmakers in late 2015 who successfully blocked the reauthorization of the bank and effectively shut down its operations. Senate leaders, however, attached funding legislation to a transportation bill in order to push it through Congress so that the bank could restore its operations.
   Since then, the Ex-Im Bank has been operating without a quorum, meaning it’s been unable to approve transactions of more than $10 million due to an insufficient number of bank board members. Agency rules require three of the bank’s five board seats to be filled to approve financing in amounts larger than $10 million. For many companies seeking trade finance assistance for large export-oriented projects, the $10 million ceiling is woefully short.
   Timmons in July penned an op-ed that appeared in the Wall Street Journal in which he praised the president for his support of American manufacturers, but warned that Garrett’s confirmation would be “a terrible deal for our country,” adding that “his record of aggressively undermining the Ex-Im Bank is tantamount to a vicious trade war against American manufacturing workers.”