{THIS ARTICLE WAS UPDATED ON NOVEMBER 11.]

The Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im), once facing a bleak outlook after staunch House opponents promised to bury any effort to renew its charter, received a boost after the House approved two separate measures within a two-week span to reauthorize the bank. The long stalled reauthorization legislation finally moved forward after House lawmakers turned to an arcane procedure called a discharge petition to bypass the committee to bring the bill to a floor vote. The maneuver, which requires 218 signatures, is rarely used and even more rarely successful.

But it was the same procedure used a little more than 20 years ago to force a vote on landmark product liability reform legislation, the General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994 (Gara). Further, the success of its use to move Ex-Im legislation in the House traces back to political maneuverings that led to the success of Gara.

Discharge petitions are used to free a bill that has been buried by committee leadership. A petition is filed seeking to discharge the committee of its duties. This can be politically difficult, because it requires lawmakers to maneuver around powerful committee leaders. Before 1993, it was even harder to secure the requisite signatures because it was a closed process. A petition would be filed and signatures collected in secret. The term “secret drawer” was often applied to the process.

The veil of secrecy had enabled lawmakers to tell the public they supported a given discharge petition yet never have to sign it. Committee chairs would pressure lawmakers to keep their names off a petition and sometimes would demand that the ones who did sign a petition remove their names.

But in 1993 Rep. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), an ardent backer of product liability reform, introduced a resolution that would make the names public. He felt this would make the discharge petition more successful in issues such as product liability, line-item veto, balanced-budget and numerous others.

When it became clear that Inhofe’s resolution was not going to be released by committee, he filed a discharge petition in 1993 to free his discharge petition resolution. With government transparency looming as a significant issue, this effort became politically popular. The petition gained steam with public support. But as it appeared that the 218 votes would be within grasp, House leaders Joseph Moakley (D-Mass.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.), stationed themselves near the “secret drawer” to “convince” signers to remove their names, according to a recounting of the events published in the Congressional Record.

Inhofe worked around Moakley and Dingell, by asking those who signed to memorize other names on the petition. Inhofe gathered the names and published the non-signatories in The Wall Street Journal. The document became a billboard for revealing who was for transparency and who was not.

In the end, Inhofe’s resolution got the 218 signatures and his resolution passed. In early 1994, a petition was filed to release general aviation product liability reform, which had been buried within the House Judiciary Committee despite its more than 300 co-sponsors. One hill staffer recalled that then chairman Jack Brooks (D-Texas) had such disdain for the product liability reform bill that during a hearing on it, he spent several minutes going through an elaborate routine of preparing a cigar to smoke while Cessna chairman Russ Meyer testified. Meyer soldiered through the testimony, but the staffer noted all eyes and attention were on the chairman’s actions.

When it became apparent that the petition would be successful, though, Brooks agreed to bring the bill up for consideration. Ultimately the bill was passed and signed into law by President Clinton on Aug. 17, 1994.

Building Support for Ex-Im

In the case of Ex-Im, it took all 218 signatures to unshackle the reauthorization bill that had been buried by House Financial Services Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).

In October Hensarling’s Democrat counterpart on the committee, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), became the 218th signature on the Ex-Im discharge petition, positioning the bill for a full House vote. The Ex-Im Bank’s charter expired at the end of June, preventing the institution from approving any new loan guarantees. The General Aviation Manufacturers Association, a key lobbying force behind the passage of Gara, has appealed for the bank’s renewal, saying the bank’s inability to approve any new loan guarantees is costing business that will lead to loss of jobs and skew the playing field. “There’s no question that the lapse of Ex-Im’s charter has already done damage to American businesses and workers and to our economic recovery,” Waters noted.

Hensarling has remained opposed to Ex-Im renewal, and said the discharge petition “is the exact opposite of regular order.” But the discharge petition cleared the way for a vote on renewing the bank’s charter, and on October 27 the House approved the reauthorization legislation 313-118. The second vote followed on November 5, when the House agreed to a comprehensive highway funding bill that included an amendment to reauthorize Ex-Im. By the November 5 vote, the House’s will on Ex-Im reauthorization was overwhelmingly evident. The highway bill, which had already cleared the Senate, was headed to a House-Senate conference at press time.

As for Sen. Inhofe, he has expressed strong opposition to Ex-Im.