Export-Import Bank helped Lugar family business in 1960s, but could end

The Lugars got a breakthrough when a Mexican company wanted to place a sizable order for machinery used to make cookies and other baked goods. An obscure federal agency, the Export-Import Bank, underwrote the contract, the first of many sales the company made in other countries.

But now the bank's future is in jeopardy because of a philosophical split in the Republican Party between the populist, tea party wing and the GOP establishment tied to business interests — the same split that contributed to Lugar's primary defeat two years ago.

Lugar said the assistance from the Export-Import Bank was transformative.

"Within three years," Lugar wrote in an opinion piece in a Capitol Hill newspaper recently in support of the bank, "our employee numbers jumped from approximately 50 to 100, and we had repaid loans and other obligations incurred by the factory during leaner years."

The bank has operated without much controversy for decades, helping finance international sales by offering low-cost loans to foreign buyers or guarantees and credit insurance against potential losses.