Manufacturers launch fresh push for Ex-Im

The president of the nation’s largest manufacturing trade group says a vote against reauthorizing the Export Import Bank is a vote to send U.S. jobs overseas.

Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), will re-launch NAM’s 2015 battle against the bank’s Tea Party critics in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

{mosads}”A vote against the Ex-Im Bank is a vote to support sending manufacturing and jobs overseas instead of here at home. It’s really that basic,” Timmons will say at the Economic Club of Minnesota Wednesday afternoon, according to a copy of his remarks obtained first by The Hill.

NAM is part of a broader coalition of business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, urging Congress to reauthorize Ex-Im before its charter expires June 30.

“Our manufacturers will soon find themselves at a distinct disadvantage, competing in an international marketplace with the odds stacked against them,” Timmons will say.

The Tea Party, along with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), argues that Ex-Im only props up big businesses like Boeing. They deride the bank as “corporate welfare” and “cronyism.”

Most centrist Republicans and Democrats say the bank helps sustain U.S. jobs by helping to finance American companies looking to make inroads in emerging markets where the private sector won’t support their projects.

Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) introduced legislation last month along with 47 Republican co-sponsors that would reauthorize the bank for five years. House Democrats, led by Reps. Maxine Waters (Calif.), Gwen Moore (Wis.) and Denny Heck (Wash.), have plans to introduce a Democratic version of the bill.