Kevin McCarthy: Let Export-Import Bank Expire

June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Representative Kevin McCarthy, the incoming House majority leader, said he favors letting the lending authority and charter of the U.S. Export-Import Bank expire in September.

McCarthy said in an interview today that the private sector can fill the void of the 80-year old institution. Its lending authority is set to expire Sept. 30. In 2012, McCarthy voted in favor of the bank’s reauthorization.

“One of the problems with government is it’s going to take hard earned money so others do things that the private sector can do,” McCarthy, a Republican from California, said on Fox News Sunday. “That’s what Ex-Im Bank does.”

The biggest beneficiaries of the bank, which backed $38 billion in exports last year, are major manufacturers including Boeing Co., General Electric Co. and Caterpillar Inc. Atlanta- based Delta Air Lines Inc. opposes reauthorization of the bank and says taxpayers shouldn’t make it easier for foreign competitors to buy jets.

“Ex-Im Bank is one that government does not have to be involved in,” McCarthy said. “The private sector can do it.”

Republicans have clashed over reauthorizing the lending authority of the bank. House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling has called the institution “the face of cronyism.” The panel, which has jurisdiction over the bank, holds a hearing on its reauthorization on June 25.

Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer has said that Hensarling’s opposition to renewing Ex-Im Bank shouldn’t prevent the majority of Republicans and Democrats who support the bank from acting to extend its charter and lending authority.

Shares of Boeing fell 2.3 percent -- the most in two months -- the day after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his primary election earlier this month and resigned his No. 2 spot, effective July 31.

Cantor had been an Ex-Im champion, having helped broker a deal to reauthorize the bank in 2012.