President Trump will shortly sign the longest reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank since its founding in 1934, Newsmax learned Friday afternoon.
Administration sources told us the president will likely sign the historic legislation on Air Force One while headed to Florida for Christmas.
The subject of considerable charges of mismanagement during the Obama Administration and frequently the target for abolition by many conservatives, the Ex-Im Bank’s charter will now be reauthorized for a record seven years.
Trump’s signing of the reauthorization comes on the heels of another “first” with the bank — the appointment of Kimberly A. Reed as the first woman chair in its 85-year-history.
Named by Trump in 2017, West Virginian Reed had her appointment languish in the Senate for more than two years. Her confirmation in May means that the Bank’s board of directors has a quorum for the first time in four years.
Created by an executive order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934, the Ex-Im Bank has assisted U.S. businesses abroad in the financing of exports of goods and services. In recent years, it has come under fire as a “trough” for “corporate welfare” and an agency that “picks winners and losers.”
In pursuit of her confirmation, Reed met with lawmakers opposed to the Ex-Im Bank and vowed reform and overhaul of management techniques as chairman. She particularly made six promises to anti-Ex-Im Bank Sen. Pat Toomey, R.-Pa., and assuaged his concerns about the controversial agency.
Now Reed will have the opportunity and the resources to make the promised reforms become reality.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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