Disapproving A Rule Submitted By the Department of Labor
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak in favor of the Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act, which I am pleased to say passed the Senate yesterday. I thank my colleagues Senator Grassley and Senator Schumer for their work on this issue.
I was proud to be a cosponsor of this bipartisan legislation which reauthorizes key provisions of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. This bill was named for Adam Walsh, who was abducted from a Sears department store and murdered when he was just 6 years old. We need to work harder to prevent horrific crimes like this from happening again.
In this regard, Federal support is vital to State and local law enforcement efforts to make sure sex offenders can be tracked and monitored. This legislation creates a safer environment for our children by providing needed resources for those on the frontlines. In particular, this legislation assists State and local law enforcement in improving sex offender registries and information sharing and aids them in locating and apprehending sex offenders. It also authorizes resources for the U.S. Marshals to aid State and local law enforcement.
We know sex offenders are not afraid to move across State lines, and that is why it is critical to provide the resources needed to fight to keep our children safe from criminal predators and other influences that are dangerous to their safety and well-being.
As a former prosecutor, I know the importance of sex offender registries in equipping our law enforcement officers with every tool available to prevent sex crimes.
When I was county attorney for Minnesota's most populous county, I saw firsthand the pain and heartbreak caused by sexual abuse to survivors and their families. During that time, I made aggressive prosecution of those who victimize children a top priority.
I wish I could say the tragedy that befell Adam Walsh was an isolated, one-time incident, but it is still happening across the country. Just earlier this month in St. Paul, MN, a 7-year-old girl was abducted within 1 minute of being out of her father's sight. That girl was luckier than some. Police found her and arrested her alleged abductor within hours of her abduction, but still the scars of the traumatic event will haunt her for the rest of her life.
I am hopeful we can come together to prevent these horrible crimes and ensure that the Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act becomes law. Now that the Senate passed this commonsense legislation on a bipartisan basis, the House should do the same. Export-Import Bank
Mr. President, I now rise to speak on another topic; that is, my strong support for the Ex-Im Bank--the Export-Import Bank. With the leadership of many in this Chamber, including Senators Cantwell, Heitkamp, Brown, Graham, and many others on both sides of the aisle, we have worked very hard and were able to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank late last year.
Currently, only two of the five Ex-Im Board seats are filled, and that is not functional. As a result, the Ex-Im Board cannot approve loan guarantees and other financing tools for medium- and long-term transactions valued in excess of $10 million, and the Board cannot put the reforms in place that were an important part of the reauthorization bill. Some of my colleagues who actually voted for this bill--and some who didn't--said it should be reformed and that there should be changes. We put those reforms in place and had it reauthorized. It was the will of the Senate, Congress, and President to get it reauthorized, and it was reauthorized, but it still cannot function for any new transactions of any significant size nor can any of the reforms be put in place. Why? Because of the dysfunctional situation of only having two of the five Board seats filled.
In January, Mark McWatters was nominated to serve on the Ex-Im Board. He is qualified, and by confirming Mr. McWatters, we can give the Ex-Im Bank the quorum it needs to support American businesses that want to sell products overseas.
The Export-Import Bank Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2015, which was included in the Fixing America's Surface Transportation bill, or the FAST Act, included several changes to the existing structure of the Ex-Im Bank, including risk management policies, fraud controls, and ethics reforms, as well as promoting exports for small businesses.
Under these reforms, small business financing would be increased, electronic document systems would be modernized, the Bank's fraud controls would be reviewed, and the risk to taxpayers would be reduced. But without a quorum and Board approval, without having this additional person confirmed--the Republican nominee--the Ex-Im Bank is not able to adopt the accountability measures or update the loan limits so that American businesses have access to the financing they need to compete globally.
The governance measures in the Ex-Im Bank reauthorization strengthen the oversight of the Bank's operations and procedures. They would establish the Office of Ethics, headed by a chief ethics officer who reports directly to the Ex-Im Bank Board. They would also create a chief risk officer and a risk management committee which are designed to oversee the Bank's operations, conduct stress tests of the Bank's portfolio, monitor exposure levels and review Ex-Im Bank's default rate reports. These were all issues that were raised by those who wanted either to get rid of the Bank or greatly change the Bank--right? So we put a number of these reforms in place.
Why didn't we adopt these reforms? Because my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are not allowing a Republican nominee to get on this Board. That is the definition of dysfunction. These reforms will help the Bank function better and protect taxpayer resources, which is what my colleagues are wanting to do to protect taxpayer resources, but yet we cannot put the reforms in place.
The Ex-Im reauthorization also modified certain loan terms and increased the threshold for midterm and long-term financing and for small business working capital loans and guarantees. The increased financing amounts will help U.S. businesses access international markets.
When our companies are competing against overseas companies for contracts, they need the Ex-Im Bank. In 2015, the Ex-Im Bank provided support for $17 billion in U.S. exports--not million, but $17 billion in U.S. exports. That is a lot of jobs. That means $17 billion of products from our country, made in the United States and made by American workers.
It sounds like a lot. The cap that we have in place now is $135 billion for total outstanding financing. But a recent article in the Financial Times shows that the China Development Bank and the Export- Import Bank of China combined had an estimated $684 billion in total development financing. We are out there at $17 billion with a cap of $135 billion.
We need to make Ex-Im fully functioning so that it can approve all deals just like its counterpart in China, just like our counterparts in other developed nations. We also want to put these important reforms in place that many of our friends on the other side of the aisle want to see in place. If we don't, countries like China are going to eat our lunch.
It is not just China. There are 85 credit export agencies in over 60 other countries, including all major exporting countries. Our companies are competing against foreign businesses that are backed by their own countries' credit export programs and often receive other government subsidies. Why would we want to make it harder for our own companies-- American companies--to create jobs right here at home? That is what we are doing.
We, the Congress, and certainly the President realized that we needed to reauthorize the Bank. But now we are not able to function and to put on simply one more Board member, and we don't have a quorum to make decisions. That Board member is a Republican nominee. If we want a level playing field for our businesses, we need to have our Export- Import Bank open and running.
This is about jobs. In 2015, the Ex-Im Bank provided $17 billion in financing that supported 109,000 U.S. jobs. This is despite the fact that the charter lapsed between July and December of last year, meaning that they literally could only do their work for half the year.
We need to make sure that the Ex-Im Bank is able to make small businesses and American businesses grow and reach markets all over the world.
The Ex-Im Bank offers loans, loan guarantees, and export credit insurance. Increased accountability and oversight are needed to make sure these programs are strong.
Since we reauthorized the Ex-Im Bank, 649 transactions worth $1.8 billion have been approved, supporting hundreds of U.S. small businesses. These small business owners, such as the many I have met with in Minnesota, told me that the Ex-Im Bank is essential for their ability to access new and emerging markets all over the world.
Balzer is an example of an agricultural equipment manufacturer with 75 employees and based in Mountain Lake, MN, a town of 2,000 people. They now export 15 percent of the total sales with the help of the Ex- Im Bank. Over the past 5 years Ex-Im financing has supported $1.7 million in exports. But guess what. What if Balzer got bigger and became a medium-size company wanting to do something over $10 million. What if they wanted to do something new and get a new bigger loan, but they can't get it approved because we only have two of the five members on the Ex-Im Bank Board. So we cannot get the new financing approved. Do we think they are doing that in China? Do we think they are doing that in any other developed nation where they say: Well, we are just going to have two of the five people on this Board to do some of the work with some of the smaller companies, which are important, but we are not going to be able to do anything when they are competing for a major contract. That is what we are doing right now.
Take Ralco, a small animal feed manufacturer in Marshall, a town of 13,500. Ralco is a third-generation family business that just celebrated its 45th anniversary. Ralco exports to over 20 countries. Over the last 5 years, Ex-Im has provided financing that supports nearly $11.7 million in exports for Ralco. If that was just in one contract that was over $10 million in new financing, they wouldn't be able to get it approved because of the fact that the Banking Committee and this Congress has decided to stall out and approve the Ex-Im Bank but cut off its ability for any major new financing. That is what is happening right now.
How about Superior Industries in Morris, MN? Superior manufactures bulk-material processing and handling systems. There are 5,000 people in this town, and 500 people in Morris work at that company. That is 10 percent of the population. Ex-Im has provided financing that supports nearly $3.1 million in exports for Superior over the last 5 years.
The list goes on. These are not large corporations. These are family businesses and smaller companies that are essential to the economic well-being of the towns and counties. The Ex-Im Bank helps these small businesses from all over my State compete and export globally. These are success stories, and we need more of them.
These are the stories we are hearing from every State. These are the stories we want to hear--not the stories that we are now hearing about companies that are closing down operations or that are laying off employees because they are not able to access the new financing they need to make major deals. They are going to foreign companies whose countries have the foresight and have their act together in their governments or in their congresses so they don't leave three of five positions open on their financing authority boards.
Ex-Im has many transactions waiting for Board approval. There are about $10 billion of deals waiting in this pipeline. So when my colleagues talk about creating jobs, there are $10 billion in private deals in the pipeline simply waiting to have one Board member confirmed so that we can get this done.
The Ex-Im Bank reauthorization passed with broad bipartisan support. We need to confirm J. Mark McWatters and put in place these important reforms to start approving transactions so our businesses can export to the world.
Usually, people sometimes stall on a confirmation because someone is viewed as too extreme or there is some problem with their record. This is a Republican nominee to fill a Republican slot on the Board. We need to get this done. Our workers, our businesses, and our country are counting on us to get this done.
I ask my colleagues to urge the Banking Committee to get this nominee through or somehow through some other procedural genius way bring this to the floor so that we can get this done.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source