Manufacturers key vote Export-Import Bank

Manufacturers are urging senators to support a bill that would reauthorize the Export-Import Bank into 2014. 

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) said Monday that they would score lawmaker votes on a compromise bank reauthorization that passed the House last week but has run into trouble in the Senate. 

Aric Newhouse, NAM's senior vice president of government affairs, said the the Ex-Im Bank "is one of the only tools manufacturers in the United States have to counter hundreds of billions of dollars of export financing that foreign governments offer to their exporters."

In 2010, Canada, France and India provided seven times, and China and Brazil 10 times more export assistance as a share of gross domestic product than United States offered, he wrote to lawmakers. 

The compromise bill was worked out by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

The bank's charter expires May 31.

The Senate will take a vote later Monday that requires the support of 60 senators. 

The vote pits business groups against conservatives, including Club for Growth and the Heritage Foundation, which argue that the bank is subsidy and and picks winners and losers in the economy. 

"The Ex-Im Bank levels the playing field for U.S. exporters by matching credit support other nations provide, ensuring that our nation’s manufacturers can compete based upon the price and performance features of their products," Newhouse said.

NAM said the bank specifically helps small and medium-sized manufacturers get a foothold in emerging economies. 

In 2011, the agency supported more than $41 billion in export sales from more than 3,600 companies, supporting approximately 290,000 export-related American jobs, according to NAM. 

"Denying Ex-Im reauthorization will hurt manufacturers of every size and threaten thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs," Newhouse said.