Republican leaders are trying quietly to reauthorize a corporate welfare agency this week,
using a few opaque words slipped into a bill providing foreign aid to Africa.
The Overseas Private
Investment Corp. is a federal agency that subsidizes U.S. companies
investing in foreign countries -- such as Ritz-Carlton building a hotel in Turkey. OPIC provides a taxpayer
backstop for the banks and the developers in case anything goes wrong..OPIC's
charter expires Sept. 30 -- the end of the current fiscal year. A standalone
bill to reauthorize OPIC would face a tough fight, given the strong Tea Party, anti-corporate-welfare
strain in the House. Instead, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce -- a
former opponent of OPIC -- teamed up with Democrats to stick reauthorization
into the “Electrify Africa Act of
2014.” The Electrify Africa bill has broad bipartisan support. Even
if it grates on some Republicans’ libertarian beliefs, there was no real
opposition. ….To Read More
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