Hoyer expects Cantor to deliver GOP votes on Ex-Im Bank bill

By Erik Wasson and Mike Lillis - 05/08/12 12:47 PM ET

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday said he expects House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to deliver the votes needed to pass their agreement for reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank.

The bill will come to the floor this week under a suspension of the rules, which requires support of two-thirds of the House for passage.

The vote could be something of a cliffhanger because the GOP is divided on whether to extend the bank. Ex-Im is strongly supported by big business, but is opposed on principle by fiscal conservative groups like the Club for Growth.

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is not whipping the bill because he never whips suspension bills, his office said. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), however, has publicly called for its approval.

Hoyer said he has received no assurances from Cantor that he has the votes.

"My presumption is Mr. Cantor made an agreement that he believes can pass," Hoyer said during his weekly press briefing in the Capitol.

"Clearly, I'm not whipping the Republicans, ... but I'll tell you this: I spent a lot of time working to try to get us to this compromise agreement, and I would be very chagrined if I couldn't deliver an overwhelming majority of my party,” Hoyer said.

Hoyer said that Democrats will come out overwhelmingly in favor of the bill.

“This is part of our Make It In America agenda, this is a part of trying to create and keep jobs in America. This is an effort to try to grow our exports,” he said.

Although the bank sustains its activities through user fees, opponents say it distorts the market by favoring foreign users of U.S. products over domestic users. This is a major issue in the aerospace industry, where Boeing backs the bank and Delta is a major critic.

The Ex-Im Bank guarantees loans to foreign purchasers of U.S. exports. The Cantor-Hoyer bill continues the bank's existence for three years, raises its loan limit to $140 billion and imposes new reporting requirements to make it more responsive to Congress and domestic businesses.