Heitkamp Leads 41 other U.S. Senators in Calling for Vote on Export-Import Bank Board Nominee to Support American Workers

Press Release

U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp led 41 others senators today -- on the one year anniversary of the Export-Import Bank being unable to fully function -- in calling on the chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee to hold a vote on the nominee to the Export-Import Bank Board.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) has refused to hold a committee vote on the nominee, Mark McWatters -- a former staffer for Republican Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Jeb Hensarling -- which is preventing the lack of a quorum on the board and halting the agency from financing many deals that support American workers, businesses, and competitiveness. The Export-Import Bank is an independent federal government agency and the official export credit agency of the United States.

Case New Holland in Fargo, which produces wheel loaders, and its workers could be impacted. The company has a dealer in New Jersey, Hoffman Equipment, that has an $80 million deal to sell a suite of equipment to the government of Cameroon. The only way Cameroon can afford the deal is if it uses financing from the Export-Import Bank. If that deal doesn't go through, facilities in three other states, including the plant in Fargo, will lose that work. This loss of work at the Case New Holland facility in Fargo would come after the plant let go of 70 workers in January because of the downturn in the agricultural sector -- hurting more workers when they are already down.

"Today isn't an anniversary worth celebrating. For decades, the Export-Import Bank has helped level the playing field for American and North Dakota businesses and workers, but it now sits in limbo," said Heitkamp. "Despite that Congress passed my legislation reauthorizing the agency six month ago, American workers are getting the pink slip because the agency is still unable to fully function due to the inaction of one U.S. senator. Since the Bank can't support many deals, it's incentivizing businesses to shift jobs overseas. We're already seeing the negative impact on workers, companies, and suppliers around the country, including at Case New Holland's plant in Fargo."

In a letter to Shelby, the senators reinforced the negative impact the lack of a quorum on the Export-Import Bank Board is having on businesses -- large and small -- and suppliers as well as workers across the country, including in North Dakota. They highlighted how some American companies have already been forced to move American jobs overseas because they have not been able to access financing from the Export-Import Bank.

The Export-Import Bank has helped North Dakota businesses grow, expand, and hire more American workers, supporting $42 million in exports since 2011 from North Dakota alone, as well as 633 jobs across the state by providing loans, loan guarantees, and insurance to facilitate overseas sales by U.S. firms.

Heitkamp a spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate yesterday to explain how the lack of a quorum on the Export-Import Bank Board is hurting American workers and businesses.

McWatters was nominated for a position on the Export-Import Bank Board more than five months ago. He has yet to receive a hearing. Over the past 15 years, Export-Import Bank nominees have waited an average of 42 days to receive a hearing, and 83 days to be confirmed.

The lack of a majority on the Export-Import Bank Board is halting in excess of $20 billion worth of deals waiting in the pipeline from being approved, and the United States is losing about $50 million in exports each day McWatters' confirmation is delayed.

At the end of June 2015, Congress let the Export-Import Bank expire for the first time in the agency's more than 80 year history. Even though Congress passed Heitkamp's bipartisan legislation in December 2015 reauthorizing the Export-Bank for four years with the support of a vast majority of U.S. senators, the Bank has still been unable to fully operate because of vacancies on the Export-Import Bank Board. With three vacancies on the five member board, the lack of a majority prevents transactions over $10 million from taking place, hindering support for American jobs and businesses -- including for suppliers of companies that use the Bank -- and preventing them from remaining competitive in the global economy.

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