AEM: Congress Must Break Habit Of Short-Term Fixes

'Congress has repeatedly failed to consistently fund the government for any meaningful length of time'

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Dennis Slater, president of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), issued this statement following the House’s vote on Wednesday to pass a short-term continuing resolution (C.R.) to fund the government through early December, and extend authorization of the Export-Import Bank for six months:

"While we are glad that the government won’t face a yet another needless, disruptive shutdown at month’s end and that manufacturers will continue to have access to important tools to support their exports, this habit in Congress of governing on a month-to-month basis must end.

"The prolonged uncertainty over the Export-Import Bank’s future has already hurt businesses, who can’t account for whether the deals they make to sell their products abroad will be backstopped by the bank, or whether they will have access to the bank’s affordable financing. This six-month extension – a stay of execution, if ideologues in Congress have their way – only serves to perpetuate this uncertainty into 2015.

"Equipment manufacturers are proud to help lead the current economic recovery and add thousands of good, high-paying jobs to our economy. But congressional inaction is holding back manufacturers from achieving even more robust success.

"Today’s vote is all too typical of this Congress, which has too often abdicated its responsibility to tackle tough issues in favor of scrambling for a politically easy escape. Congress has repeatedly failed – to consistently fund the government for any meaningful length of time, to craft a substantive solution to the Highway Trust Fund, to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank for the long term.

"AEM is committed to fighting for these commonsense solutions through the lame-duck Congress and into 2015. We hope voters this fall share our interest in seeing a Congress composed of leaders who will also fight for these commonsense solutions and good manufacturing jobs."

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