Trump nominates full Ex-Im Bank board slate

President Trump on Sept. 15 announced three more nominations to serve as U.S. Export-Import Bank board members, which along with two previously submitted nominations would bring the bank to a full complement of five board members if approved by the Senate.    President Trump on Sept. 15 announced three more nominations to serve as U.S. Export-Import Bank board members.
   Along with two previously submitted nominations, the latest nominees would bring the bank to a full complement of five board members if approved by the Senate.
   For nearly two years, Ex-Im Bank has operated without a quorum of at least three board members, meaning that it cannot approve any financial transactions above $10 million. Many U.S. exporters—large and small—have complained that they have been left unable to compete with other overseas companies for significant export deals, particularly in developing countries. 
   The latest nominations for the Ex-Im Bank board include Kimberly Reed, Claudia Slacik and Judith Pryor. 
   Reed most recently served as president of the International Food Information Council Foundation, and before that was senior advisor to U.S. Treasury Secretaries John Snow and Henry Paulson, and led the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.  
   Slacik formerly served as Ex-Im Bank’s chief banking officer from September 2013 to May 2016 under the Obama administration. Her experience also includes serving as a managing director of J.P. Morgan from July 2009 to September 2013 and in various management roles at Citi from July 1992 to April 2009.
   Pryor is the former vice president of external affairs for the Overseas Private Investment Corp.
   “These nominees build on President Donald Trump’s vigorous and outspoken support of American manufacturing workers and the Ex-Im Bank,” said Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, in a statement. “And manufacturers urge the Senate to quickly take up these three nominations, as well as the previously announced nomination of Spencer Bachus.”
   Bachus was nominated to the Ex-Im Bank board by the Trump administration in mid-April. He is a member of Birmingham, Ala.-based law firm Bachus and Brom, and previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2015.
   Also nominated in mid-April to be the next Ex-Im Bank president was Scott Garrett, a former House lawmaker from New Jersey. The export industry has called for the withdraw of Garrett’s nomination, citing his efforts in Congress to eliminate the Ex-Im Bank. 
   “President Trump understands exactly the critical role that Ex-Im Bank plays in supporting 1.4 million jobs in the United States. The Senate must ensure that Mr. Garrett is not put in a position to both thwart the president’s stated goals and harm America’s manufacturing workers,” Timmons said.
   NAM has been one of the most outspoken critics of Garrett’s nomination as Ex-Im Bank president, publishing op-eds in major daily newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal, and running nationwide radio advertising campaigns throughout the summer opposing his nomination.