WASHINGTON – The 42 House Republicans who teamed with Democrats to force a vote on the U.S. Export-Import Bank this month showed that the divided chamber can still work together.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, could try a similar bipartisan formula to raise the federal debt limit by the Nov. 3 deadline. He could try to finance the government and replenish the highway fund the same way.
The debt-default deadline is just three weeks away, but first comes an Oct. 29 deadline for Congress to replenish the highway fund. Boehner also is trying to head off a government shutdown in December.
"In order to govern around here we may need a bipartisan coalition," Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Charlie Dent said a day before he and other lawmakers gathered the 218 petition signatures needed to require a House vote on Ex-Im.
The Ex-Im petition succeeded in part because of two circumstances: a long-term effort to revive a bank that lawmakers in both parties credit with helping companies in their districts sell goods overseas; and turmoil over who will succeed Boehner as speaker, with some Republicans expressing exasperation with conservative members who helped force his ouster.
The effort to restore the bank is an end-run around House leaders who are strongly opposed to Ex-Im, including Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
He and others who oppose Ex-Im say it mostly helps big corporations that don't need government assistance. Congress allowed the bank's charter to lapse on June 30.
Republican Reps. Stephen Fincher of Tennessee and Frank Lucas of Oklahoma led the petition signature-gathering among members of their party. Second-ranking House Democrat Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland got almost all Democrats to sign the document.
"We thought it was important to have Republicans sign it first," Hoyer said.
Various combinations of centrist Republicans have helped Boehner get major items passed in recent years, rankling conservatives. In 2013, 85 Republicans joined 172 Democrats to pass a fiscal deal; 49 Republicans and 192 Democrats passed the Hurricane Sandy relief bill; and 87 Republicans joined 199 Democrats to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.
The trend continued in March, when 75 Republicans helped finance the Department of Homeland Security without addressing conservatives' demand to attack President Obama's executive actions on immigration.
Republicans involved in the Ex-Im push rejected claims that they abandoned their party. Fincher described the effort that led him to work with Democrats as a "last resort."
Dan Holler of the conservative group Heritage Action said that he doesn't want the centrist Republicans' effort to become a precedent.
"This group worked behind closed doors with the No. 2 Democrat of the House to advance a policy that is opposed by a majority of the Republican conference," said Holler. "The challenge is to ensure that this does not become a method that this group uses to govern."
