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Washington Jobs May Evaporate Without Ex-Im Bank

Two of Congress's loudest cheerleaders for the US Export-Import Bank - Washington's Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell - are rooting hard for a scoring drive before the final gun. But they know their cheers may be for naught.

Unless Congress acts soon, the Export-Import Bank -Ex-Im as it's known to insiders - will go belly up. The 80-year old federally chartered bank offers loans, credit insurance and guarantees to help foreign buyers purchase U-S goods.

Think Boeing, for example. The big company is a prime beneficiary of the Ex-Im guarantee program.

As Washington Congressman Denny Heck put it - who's going to finance Uganda's purchase of a 300-million dollar airplane?

Smaller Washington firms depend on the bank, too. Cantwell and Murray were in Spokane last week, touting Ex-Im's importance to the SCAFCO Company, which employs 245 people in Spokane, and which sells grain storage silos and steel framing to 82 countries.

But the bank's charter may be allowed to lapse by the new congressional House leadership. Incoming Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who once supported the bank, now opposes it, saying the gap could be filled by private financiers. And his deputy-to-be, Steve Scalise, is solidly aligned with Tea Party groups which denounce the bank as "crony capitalism."

They have the power to kill any bill to re-authorize the Ex-Im charter.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee said loss of the bank will jeopardize thousands of jobs in the state, where about 40 percent of them are tied to international trade.