--- title: Ex-Im Bank: Barack Obama Calls for Renewal During White House Meeting description: President Obama met Wednesday with medium and small business owners who he said have benefitted from the now-expired Ex-Im bank canonical: https://time.com/3967628/barack-obama-export-import-bank-small-business/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-22T20:16:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:28:30.781Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Uses Small Business Owners to Argue for Expired Agency og:description: He called on Congress to reinstate the Export-Import Bank og:url: https://time.com/3967628/barack-obama-export-import-bank-small-business/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01249cf1d78daa06/69885c195f570ff0d4b1c90c/barack-obama-export-import-bank.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: US President Barack Obama speaks to small business owners on the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on July 22, 2015 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Uses Small Business Owners to Argue for Expired Agency twitter:description: He called on Congress to reinstate the Export-Import Bank twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01249cf1d78daa06/69885c195f570ff0d4b1c90c/barack-obama-export-import-bank.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Uses Small Business Owners to Argue for Export-Import Bank by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 22, 2015 8:16 PM UTC  US President Barack Obama speaks to small business owners on the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on July 22, 2015 in Washington, DC. US President Barack Obama speaks to small business owners on the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on July 22, 2015 in Washington, DC.MANDEL NGAN—AFP/Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 22, 2015 8:16 PM UTC President Obama said the renewing the Export-Import Bank’s charter should be a “no-brainer” during a meeting with business owners at the White House. On Wednesday, Obama called on Congress reauthorize the bank, which Congress allowed to expire in late June, by using small- and medium-sized business owners to debunk the Congressional argument that it provides government handouts to big businesses. “This should be a no-brainer,” Obama said Wednesday. “The Export-Import Bank makes money for the U.S. government. I just want to be clear about this: This is not a situation in which taxpayers are subsidizing these companies.” The 81-year-old bank, which helps finance foreign purchases of U.S. products such as Boeing planes, saw its charter lapse on July 1 when Congress failed to act. Conservative activists had increasingly targeted the bank as a form of corporate welfare in recent years, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy called it “crony capitalism,” although it retains some support among Republican lawmakers. But while activists focus on the bank’s bigger clients, the White House has focused on the ways it helps smaller businesses. “Ex-Im equips companies with financing they need to go toe-to-toe with foreign rivals, resulting in more exports and more well-paying jobs in cities and towns here in America, rather than overseas,” a White House official said recently. Senators have signaled interest in renewing the bank through an amendment to a bill that funds a critical infrastructure program that could suffer a lapse in funding if its not renewed by the end of July. The Senate, however, is struggling to pass its version of the bill, which failed to clear a procedural hurdle on Tuesday. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3967628/barack-obama-export-import-bank-small-business/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3967628/barack-obama-export-import-bank-small-business/"},"headline":"President Obama Uses Small Business Owners to Argue for Export-Import Bank","datePublished":"2015-07-22T20:16:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:28:30.781Z","description":"Congress allowed the bank's charter to expire earlier this month","url":"https://time.com/3967628/barack-obama-export-import-bank-small-business/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","global trade"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01249cf1d78daa06/69885c195f570ff0d4b1c90c/barack-obama-export-import-bank.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01249cf1d78daa06/69885c195f570ff0d4b1c90c/barack-obama-export-import-bank.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US President Barack Obama speaks to small business owners on the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on July 22, 2015 in Washington, DC.","caption":"US President Barack Obama speaks to small business owners on the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on July 22, 2015 in Washington, DC.","creditText":"MANDEL NGAN—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3967628/barack-obama-export-import-bank-small-business/","name":"President Obama Uses Small Business Owners to Argue for Export-Import Bank"}}]}] ```