Rep. Hensarling’s invite to Ex-Im conference ‘lost in the mail’

Export-Import Bank president Fred Hochberg said that he would “love” for House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling to make an appearance this week at the embattled bank’s conference in Washington.

But in an exchange that underscored the increasingly bitter debate over the bank’s fate, a staffer for Hensarling (R-Texas), a leading critic of the institution, countered that the lawmaker hadn’t received an invitation.

Hensarling, whose committee’s jurisdiction includes oversight of Ex-Im, favors allowing the bank to close when its charter expires at the end of June. Hochberg is pressing Congress to reauthorize the charter.

He is hosting more than 1,200 people at the conference, including exporters from more than 30 countries, as well as top administration officials including national security adviser Susan Rice and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.

“I’d love for him to come to this annual conference. I would love for him to be here — meet the exporters, meet the people who are the job creators and talk to them and hear from them firsthand,” Hochberg said of Hensarling Wednesday night. “Understand what it’s like running a business and trying to compete. It’s very hard. It’s very difficult.”

On Friday morning, Ex-Im supporters Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Reps. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and Maxine Waters (Calif.) — the top Democrat on Hensarling’s panel — are scheduled to speak at the conference.

Hensarling is not on the list of attendees. Jeff Emerson, a spokesman for the Financial Services Committee, said the congressman did not receive a formal invitation.

“We’ve double checked and can’t find any invitation from Mr. Hochberg for Chairman Hensarling to attend his annual conference, so we’ll be charitable and assume it got lost in the mail,” Emerson said.

Emerson said that “otherwise, chairman Hensarling would have loved to have been there to be the voice of hardworking small-business people who shoulder Ex-Im’s credit risk but are competitively disadvantaged by it.”

Ex-Im spokesman Matthew Bevens said Ex-Im officials sent invitations to every single member of Congress.

The invitation was emailed and an agenda of the conference was sent on April 17, he said.

“Of course we welcomed every single member of Congress and their staffs to join us at this year’s Ex-Im Bank Annual Conference,” Bevens said.

Hensarling and other critics of the Bank have argued that Ex-Im puts small businesses at a competitive disadvantage by boosting big businesses.

Hensarling has vowed to hold a hearing on Ex-Im before June 30, but he hasn’t said if he will move a bill through his panel. The Senate is expected to pass an Ex-Im reauthorization bill in the coming weeks.

Heitkamp and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) have introduced a reauthorization bill, and there are several proposals in the House.

This story was updated at 1:50 p.m. on April 24.