WASHINGTON — In a victory for the business establishment over Tea Party conservatives, President Barack Obama on Friday signed legislation reviving the federal Export-Import Bank five months after Congress allowed it to expire.
The bank is a small federal agency that makes and guarantees loans to help foreign customers buy U.S. goods. A measure extending it through 2019 was included in a massive transportation bill that cleared the House and Senate late Thursday and was signed Friday.
The development was cheered by business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They say the Ex-Im Bank is necessary for U.S. competitiveness since most overseas competitors rely on similar government help.
But conservatives pushed by the billionaire Republican Koch brothers decried the development, arguing that the bank amounts to government interference in the free market and many of its beneficiaries are large corporations that don’t really need the help.
For decades, the bank was renewed by bipartisan agreement, with little or no debate. After conservative groups began to seize on the opportunity to kill off a federal agency, leading Republicans such as House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who once supported the bank, turned against it.
