During the chaos of the House Speaker fiasco, GOP Reps. Stephen Fincher (Tenn.), Chris Collins (N.Y.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) filed a discharge petition to reauthorize the Import/Export Bank for five years.
Because they were working closely with Steny Hoyer, within Hours according to TheHill, they collected the 218 votes needed on a discharge petition to bring legislation directly to the House floor and bypass committee. Every Democrat signed on.
“I’m a Republican filing the petition,” Fincher told The Hill earlier this week. “This is a Republican procedure. This is not a Democrat procedure. If Democrats want to support our conservative idea to reauthorize and reform the bank, I’m happy to have them.”
Hensarling criticized the petition Friday saying it "sets a serious, very dangerous precedent for our Republican majority that goes far beyond Ex-Im,'' describing the parliamentary procedure as "the exact opposite of regular order.''
According to
USA Today
(Jeb Hensarling is the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.)
Personally I believe that the Import / Export Bank is corporate welfare, even though it does not cost the Federal Treasury.
But I love seeing Democratic hardball during this Republican feeding frenzy.