Wednesday, June 17, 2015 by Paul J. Nyden

The Export-Import Bank helps hundreds of small businesses across the country. But it will expire if Congress does not approve legislation to renew its charter, set to expire on June 30.

Expanding on comments in recent days, Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., said he strongly supports the work the bank does to help small companies get into the export market, but opposes the major financial help received by a handful of large corporations.

He said last month that he would oppose the bank’s reauthorization unless he was convinced the bank would be “reformed” with a focus on small business.

“The point of the act was to help small businesses, such as the Wheeling Truck Center,” McKinley said.

But, McKinley said, he opposes Export-Import funds that recently went to major corporations, including Boeing Co., $8.3 billion; General Electric, $2.6 billion; Bechtel, $1.8 billion; Applied Materials, $1.5 billion; and Caterpillar, $1.3 billion.

“The act is supposed to help small businesses. Otherwise, companies like Wheeling Truck could have trouble getting loans to do business overseas,” McKinley said. “We need to get it refocused on small businesses.”

A Wheeling Truck official told the Sunday Gazette-Mail last week that the company relies on the Export-Import Bank to facilitate its sales in 98 foreign countries, and said the bank has been “very helpful” to Wheeling Truck.

In explaining his support for the bank, representatives for Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said last week that 89 percent of the bank’s transactions already help small businesses.

Opponents of the bank, including many conservative Republicans, have latched onto the Boeing money in their arguments. The Wall Street Journal reported on May 25, “For years, critics have referred to the U.S. Export-Import Bank as ‘Boeing’s Bank’ because the government agency provides billions in financial backing to the aerospace company.”

Delta Air Lines has emerged among the leading opponents of the bank, alleging that the bank helps Delta’s foreign competitors buy jets from Boeing.

McKinley provided a list of 10 small companies in his congressional district in northern West Virginia that benefit from Export-Import Bank loan guarantees.

The top five companies, with the total value of their annual exports, are: Fox Systems in Morgantown, $8.2 million; Europlec USA in Clarksburg, $3.3 million; Leveltek Processing in Benwood, $2.3 million; Wissmach Paul Glass in Paden City, $2.2 million; and International Petroleum in Saint Marys, $1.5 million.

“I want more companies like these and Wheeling Truck to take advantage of the Export-Import Bank,” McKinley said. “If we are going to reauthorize it, then lets go back and restructure it. We could help a lot of smaller businesses in West Virginia.”

McKinley also opposes provisions in the new Export-Import Bank legislation that would deny financial assistance to companies building coal-fired power plants in other countries.

He and Rep. Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn., are co-sponsoring a bill that would make reforms to the existing legislation, including suspending “supplemental guidelines for high carbon intensity projects.”

“We should be able to use the Export-Import Bank to help fund construction of power plants,” he said.

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