Schumer: Vote to save Ex-Im Bank to come this week

A federal program that helps U.S. companies sell their goods and services overseas will be reauthorized by Congress this week, New York’s senior senator said Monday.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced a deal he said he helped to broker that would revive the Export-Import Bank of the United States. It has been criticized as “crony capitalism” by conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats.

Opposition is strongest in the House of Representatives.

The bank has been in limbo since its congressional authorization to help foreign customers buy U.S. goods and services lapsed in September 2014. The bank provides financing and insurance to foreign buyers.

Schumer said approval for the bank to resume its activities for another five years will be included in a transportation bill, to be voted on this week by the House and Senate.

“The Ex-Im Bank has been one of the key tools in our toolbox for supporting and growing manufacturing jobs across New York State for a generation -- which is why casting that critical resource aside and letting the bank expire last year was shortsighted and wrong,” Schumer said in a statement.

Ex-Im has helped 270 businesses in the state since 2007, including guitar string maker D’Addario & Co. in East Farmingdale, Kiss Nail Products in Port Washington and Good Health Natural Foods in Northport.

Twenty local companies worked with the bank in 2013.

Susan Axelrod, founder of Love & Quiches Gourmet in Freeport, said Monday the bank had aided her company’s foray into international markets for 15 years. She said Love & Quiches’ export sales have been “essentially on hold since the bank’s charter expired.”

Axelrod has lobbied Congress on behalf of Ex-Im. She praised Schumer, calling his announcement “wonderful news for both our business and our employees.”