Handling the business-conservative rift
One of the few items left on the House’s short legislative slate will be a tricky balancing act for McCarthy.
The Export-Import Bank’s charter, which dates back to FDR and provides government guarantees on loans to help corporations do business abroad, is set to expire at the end of September. Major business groups are pushing hard for an extension, and conservatives in and out of Congress are pushing just as hard to kill it.
Among those leading the charge to let it die is Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee that oversees the bank and a possible contender for Speaker or majority leader later this year who demurred on challenging McCarthy.
Hensarling has blasted the bank as “corporate cronyism” and vowed to defeat it.
Cantor previously played a key role in winning an extension of the charter, but had said he would defer this time to Hensarling, at least for the time being. McCarthy repeated that message when he was campaigning to replace Cantor, but as the deadline nears he’ll face significant pressure from the business community and its backers to get the extension done.
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