Obama Urges Fast U.S. Export-Import Bank Renewal by Congress

“Well, I just had the opportunity to hear from businesses all across the country to talk about the importance of reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank. This is not an issue that typically rises to the front page of the newspapers, but for these businesses and for their employees and for the communities that they serve, this is vital. Just understand what the Export-Import Bank does and has been doing for 81 years is to help U.S. companies with U.S. employees sell their products overseas… And as a consequence of this arrangement, not only do we not end up subsidizing these companies -- these companies are paying a fee to the Export-Import Bank; the Export-Import Bank makes money for the U.S. government. So I just want to be clear about this. This is not a situation in which taxpayers are subsidizing these companies. In fact, at the end of the day, we have a situation in which the U.S. Treasury is benefitting while at the same time allowing these companies to sell their products overseas… People are being affected by this, and we heard stories from these companies right now that orders are on hold, business is in danger, potentially expansions will stall, fewer employees will be hired if we do not get this done.”