By Ben Weyl, CQ Staff

The Senate is set to clear a reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank on Tuesday, sending the bill to President Obama for his signature after weeks of wrangling in spite of strong bipartisan support for the measure.

A top priority of the Obama administration, renewing the bank’s charter divided Republicans who have been caught between their allies in the business community — who desire passage — and free market advocacy groups that oppose government-backed export financing as a form of corporate welfare.

The final hurdle to passage was cleared after Senate leaders agreed Monday evening to permit five GOP-sponsored amendments to be offered before the vote on passage.

None of the amendments is expected to be adopted. That means the version of the bill (HR 2072) passed by the House by 330-93 on May 9 is likely to be cleared.

The legislation would raise the Ex-Im Bank’s lending cap to $140 billion from $100 billion in stages through 2014. The bank provides direct loans, credit financing and loan guarantees to back the purchase of U.S.-made goods and services overseas. Its charter lapses at the end of this month, and the bank is also close to reaching its lending cap, creating a sense of urgency for bank supporters.

GOP Amendments

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had sought to clear the House-passed bill by unanimous consent, but he ran into opposition from Republicans who wanted to offer several amendments.

Reid resisted for several days, calling the amendments “egregious” and a waste of time. The Senate had been scheduled to hold a cloture vote Monday evening to permit a vote on proceeding to the bill, but Reid called it off after reaching agreement with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to allow amendments.

Each of the five amendments that will be allowed would either curtail some of the bank’s activities or eliminate it outright. Under the agreement, a 60-vote majority will be required for adoption of any amendment, and for passage.

The usually obscure export credit financing agency has been cast as a political football since March, when Senate Democrats first sought to reauthorize it and were blocked by Republicans. The original Senate bill, offered by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. — whose state is home to Boeing Co., the bank’s biggest beneficiary — would have extended Ex-Im’s authorization into 2015, and gradually raised its lending cap to $140 billion.

At the time, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., had been pushing an alternative proposal to reauthorize the bank for only one year and raise the lending cap to $113 billion.

Cantor also wanted to add reporting and analysis requirements to the bank’s charter, including a provision requiring additional scrutiny of aircraft-related loans. That was a nod to concerns raised by Delta Air Lines Inc., which complains that Ex-Im Bank undermines its global competitive position by helping international carriers purchase Boeing planes.

Such conservative advocacy groups as the Club for Growth and Heritage Action for America also argued strongly against reauthorization. They view the bank as a distortion of free-market principles.