In 2002, when I began covering Export-Import Bank votes, the GOP-controlled Senate reauthorized the agency by voice vote. In 2006, they did the same.

In 2012, there was actually a roll call vote, and 19 Republicans voted "No" — including party leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

This year, 28 Republicans voted against reauthorizing Ex-Im. Of the four Republican senators who missed the vote, three are Ex-Im opponents: Sens. Jeff Flake, Bob Corker and Marco Rubio.

If you put Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt on the "Yea" side (where he has historically been), that leaves the GOP conference at 31-23 against Ex-Im. That's not merely a majority of the majority, that vote breaks down to 57.4 percent to 42.6 percent — a blowout.


*The chart above counts Sen. Mark Kirk in 2012 as supporting Ex-Im, which he vociferously does, although he missed the vote after his stroke. It also counts Flake, Corker, and Rubio as opponents in 2015, and Blunt as a supporter in 2015.

Corker voted No in 2012, and his office wrote me to say Corker "would not have supported a reauthorization as proposed."

Flake voted No in 2012, and he put out a statement saying "I would have voted against the amendment."

Rubio has been consistently opposed to it.

** All Democrats except Bernie Sanders supported Ex-Im in both 2012 and 2015.