NAM wants Ex-Im Bank chairman nominee withdrawn

Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, warns in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that Scott Garrett’s confirmation to Ex-Im Bank chief would be “a terrible deal for our country.”    The head of one of largest U.S. manufacturers’ associations wants President Trump’s nomination for the U.S. Export-Import Bank chairmanship withdrawn. 
   Jay Timmons, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), made his association’s views known in a strongly worded op-ed prepared for the Wall Street Journal.
   While he praised the president for his support of American manufacturers, he warned that Scott Garrett’s confirmation to Ex-Im Bank chief 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.”
   Trump nominated Garrett, a former House lawmaker from New Jersey, in mid-April to lead the Ex-Im Bank.
   Political tensions over the bank’s reauthorization caused it to shutter operations briefly in late 2015. Senate leaders were then forced to attach funding legislation to a transportation bill in order to push it through Congress so that the bank could restore its operations.
   Since then, however, 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.
   Garrett was one of the small outspoken group of lawmakers seeking Ex-Im Bank’s closure, calling the financial institution a hallmark of “crony capitalism.”