The bank serves as the U.S. government’s official export credit agency, where it finances and insures international purchases of U.S. goods to the tune of $100 billion per year.
According to a bank fact sheet, it financed $11 billion in sales of Boeing-made aircraft.
Under a bipartisan compromise, approved 78-20 in the full chamber, the lending limit will go up to $120 billion this year, $130 billion in 2013 and reach $140 billion by the end of fiscal 2014.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the bank in 1934 through an executive order.