Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will not take up a standalone bill to renew the Export-Import Bank that the House is slated to take up on Monday (Oct. 26) under a discharge petition and could pass shortly thereafter, according to a spokesman.
[Reposted from Inside US Trade | October 26, 2015]
“No, [McConnell] will not spend a week of floor time on a bill he doesn’t support,” McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said in an Oct. 26 email, when asked whether the majority leader would let a House-passed standalone Ex-Im bill to come to the Senate floor.
The Senate has already passed an Ex-Im reauthorization as a part of a long-term highway bill, but the House has not taken up that bill or passed its own long-term highway bill. The effort to pass the House Ex-Im bill through the discharge petition is being spearheaded by Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN).
Separately, congressional and private-sector sources said that Ex-Im renewal will not be part of an emerging fiscal deal being negotiated by the White House with the House and Senate leadership. Ex-Im supporters had previously viewed bills to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling that Congress needs to approve before the end of 2016 as must-pass vehicles on which to attach Ex-Im reauthorization.
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