Story ID: 
AIA Urges Quick Action on Ex-Im Nominations
By: Kerry Lynch
Caption: AIA's Melcher cites Ex-Im estimates that more than $30 billion dollars of U.S. export sales are unable to be completed without a board quorum.
Word Count: 328
The Aerospace Industries Association is urging Senate Banking Committee chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) to move quickly on a new round of nominations to the Export-Import Bank board of directors, saying the bank has languished without a quorum for too long. On September 15, the White House announced its intent to nominate Claudia Slacik and Judith Delzoppo Pryor to the board, as well as Kimberly Reed to be first vice-president.

Reed, a former senior advisor under U.S. Treasury Secretaries John Snow and Henry Paulson, most recently was president of the International Food Information Council Foundation. Both Pryor and Slacik served under the Obama administration, Pryor as vice president of external affairs for the Overseas Private Investment Corp. and Slacik as Ex-Im chief banking officer. They join previous nominees former congressmen Spencer Bachus and Scott Garrett on the Ex-Im nomination slate, although Garrett has drawn strong opposition from manufacturing groups.

AIA president and CEO David Melcher noted the association strongly supports the Reed, Slacik, Pryor and Bachus nominations. “This group exhibits the track record of leadership and belief in the mission of the bank to restore it to full functionality,” Melcher said. “The bank has been languishing without a quorum of at least three members on its board, unable to fulfill its mission or process transactions exceeding $10 million.”

He urged Sen. Crapo to schedule hearings as quickly as possible. “By the bank’s latest estimate, more than $30 billion dollars of U.S. export sales are unable to be completed without a board quorum,” he said.

Melcher also echoed sentiments shared with the National Association of Manufacturers in reiterating opposition to the nomination of Garrett as chairman “due to his stated opposition to the Bank’s mission” and said, “Aerospace companies—small, medium and large—need a chairman and a full slate of Ex-Im board members who will bolster American export sales opportunities that lead to job growth here at home.”