Ex-Im Expired: Now What?

Two weeks ago, the Export-Import Bank’s authorization lapsed. The agency remains open, but is not allowed to consider new loans or other projects. It may only maintain its existing portfolio, which will wind down over a period of several years.

In an op-ed over at Inside Sources, I take a look at what’s next for Ex-Im:

Rarely does a federal agency shut its doors — the Civil Aeronautics Board closed in 1985, and the Interstate Commerce Commission followed suit in 1995, but that’s about it. Twenty years later, will Ex-Im add its name to this short list? What will happen then? Should the agency be revived?

The short answers are that nobody knows if it will actually close, not much will happen in the short run either way, and the agency should not be revived.

In the time since I wrote the piece, it’s begun to look like Ex-Im reauthorization may be folded into the highway bill extension Congress will consider later this month, but nothing is concrete yet.

Read the whole thing here.