Rent-Seekers Cry That Export-Import Bank Handicapped with $10 Million Loan Limits. Without a quorum, the bank — which currently has only two board members — can’t provide loans greater than $10 million.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Fred Hochberg bears the pained look of a man who wants to say more than he actually can. But restraint is probably a good idea, since Hochberg leads one of the most controversial, polarizing federal agencies in Washington: the Export-Import Bank.

Last year, Congress failed to reauthorize the bank, which helps U.S. companies finance exports to other countries. Though the agency enjoyed bipartisan support, the more conservative wing of House Republicans wants to eliminate the bank, which they accuse of using taxpayer dollars to benefit corporations.

Congress ultimately reauthorized the bank, but Senate Banking Committee chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., continues to block President Obama’s nominees to fill three seats on the agency’s board. Without a quorum, the bank — which currently has only two board members — can’t provide loans greater than $10 million.

“That has very much handicapped us in doing the full functions of what was intended when we were reauthorized,” Hochberg, whom Obama appointed as bank chairman in 2009, told me last week in San Francisco.“The bank has never had this kind of (board) lapse of this duration.”

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