
Rep. Maxine Waters is pulling a bipartisan Export-Import Bank bill that sparked a fierce backlash from her own caucus, in the first big blow to her chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee.
Just before the panel was scheduled to take up the bill Wednesday, the California Democrat informed her members that she would not move ahead with a vote this week on legislation she negotiated with Rep.
Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) to reauthorize and revamp the bank, which provides loan guarantees to foreign buyers of U.S. goods.Waters then announced that there was a consensus among Democrats to reauthorize the agency and that she still wanted to reach a bipartisan deal.
"I am not giving up," she said. "And of course I am asking Mr. McHenry not to give up."
Waters relented after the original compromise she drafted with McHenry ignited criticism from a wide swath of the Democrats on the committee, centrists and progressives alike, from the most senior members to newly elected freshmen.
They objected to new restrictions that would be imposed on the bank and big manufacturers such as Boeing, as well as the lack of tougher environmental safeguards for energy projects financed abroad.
Uniting the disgruntled members was frustration that Waters negotiated the bill and expected them to fall in line behind it without more of their input. By Wednesday morning, labor and environmental advocates were fighting the bill as well, while business groups largely stayed quiet.
Before Waters changed course, some Democrats expected around half their caucus on the committee to oppose the bill when it came up for a vote.
The move now raises questions about the fate of the beleaguered bank, which without action by Congress, its operating charter will lapse in September.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine