Source: Google Gemini 1/15/26 response to request by InRecap to compare US ExIm and EPA WIFIA
Update 1/16/26: HR 6938 passed the Senate and will presumably be signed into law fairly soon. So, my observations in this post about WIFIA reauthorization later this year now apply, as do these from a prior post: Latest Spending Bill: CWIFP Non-FCRA Ineligibility and WIFIA Pointless Funding. No surprises.
This continues the topic of the prior post. ‘Crony loaner’ is a nickname that’s easier to say and quicker to type than ‘crony loan program’ while still getting the essential point across. It also sounds a bit funny for some reason [1] — so why not?
Note the 2026 expiry date of both crony loaners. I don’t know if the opponents of US ExIm bank will surface with a campaign to let the charter expire, as they did in 2015 and again (I think) in 2019. Neither campaign worked, but the political climate has changed a lot and is especially fluid and volatile now. With all the serious issues on the table for the 2026 midterms, perhaps a campaign against an obscure crony loaner wouldn’t be expected to get much traction. OTOH, ‘crony capitalism’ might become a populist issue in general and an anti-ExIm campaign could slipstream into it. I’ll try and find out what the 2015/2019 opponents are planning.
For our favorite water crony loaner, EPA WIFIA, I checked HR 6938 for any reauthorization riders and didn’t see anything. That could change if the Senate spending bill is amended, perhaps in conference committee if that’s required — I don’t know this either.
My guess is that the rush to get the 3-bill minibus passed in January will likely preclude anyone taking the time to reauthorize EPA WIFIA or CWIFP. Yes, the December Senate bill snuck in some non-FCRA provisos against cost-share loans to federally owned projects, so someone is paying attention, but surely, they’re much too busy now?
Probably, the reauthorization is planned for WRDA 2026 or legislation generally extending IIJA water programs. So, a few months off.
I don’t think there’ll be any controversy for EPA WIFIA, and I’d predict that US ExIm’s charter will get renewed again even if its opponents launch another campaign. Almost by definition, crony loaners — small, obscure and relatively cheap federal financing programs that are useful in specialized applications for influential borrowers — are hard to terminate. But there might be another purpose in trying to make an issue out of EPA WIFIA’s reauthorization — the criticisms will highlight the need for a new water infrastructure finance program, and they’ll resonate with the same points raised in an overlapping anti-ExIm campaign if there is one. Worth thinking about.
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Notes
[1] Fun with words: Federal loan ‘program’ sounds like something that’s demonstrably necessary and has a serious policy intent, e.g., addressing an emergency in the economy or a critical affordability issue. New Deal programs, where federal finance really started, had these characteristics — regardless of efficacy, they were serious policy efforts.
In contrast, a ‘loaner’ can literally mean a ‘lender’ but in common usage it’s a temporary and occasionally useful expedient that’s often seen as a perk or indulgence for more elevated folks — e.g., a luxury car ‘loaner’ when yours is in the shop (do they do that for private jets as well?). Not really a serious thing, which is why the double meaning sounds a bit funny. Now add the term ‘crony’, which conveys secretive influence combined with self-satisfied disdain for any consideration of the ‘public good’, and you get the sense of exactly what I think is going on.