Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act--Continued

Floor Speech

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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise to talk about the Cantwell-Johnson-Graham-Shelby amendment that is going to be voted on shortly in this series of votes we are going to be having, and to urge my colleagues to support this important amendment that would reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank for 4 years, until 2015. The current authorization is set to expire in May of this year, so it is very urgent we pass this authorization. It would increase capacity for the bank because there is demand.

The Ex-Im Bank, people may know--or maybe not know--supplies credit stability to foreign purchases of U.S. product, where the purchaser has limited access to private sector capital due to political risk or instability or limited access to capital. It is something we have had since 1934. So this program has been a way for U.S. manufacturers, small businesses, a variety of U.S. companies, to make sure they get sales of their products in international markets. It has been an incredibly important tool. Somebody called it one of the most important toolboxes in U.S. economic capacity to help our economy.

In 2011, the bank supported over $41 billion in U.S. exports from over 3,600 U.S. companies, and it has supported nearly 290,000 export-related jobs in America. So that is a very big impact. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the reauthorization of this program will help reduce the deficit by over $900 million over the next 5 years. That is right, a program that is run by the government that actually helps our deficit be reduced, and that is because of the amount of money that is made from these transactions and returned to the Treasury.

I wish to thank my colleagues: Senators Johnson, Graham, Shelby, Warner, Schumer, Brown, Hagan, Coons, Akaka, Murray, Landrieu, Kerry, Kirk, Durbin, Shaheen, McCaskill, Lieberman, and Casey for all sponsoring this important amendment.

The reason we are out here is to make sure our colleagues know this is the 25th time this legislation has been up for extension since the original Executive order establishing it. I am looking at the record: 1983, passed by voice vote on the reauthorization; passed by unanimous consent in 1992--passed by unanimous consent many of the times.

Here is a program that over the last several decades has been passed by unanimous consent. Yet all of a sudden this legislation is being stalled or held up. What I want to make sure my colleagues know is what an important tool it is for job creation and why it is so important that we not take the capital that is left over in the Ex-Im program and delay it because what is going to happen if we do not get this reauthorization done right away is that they are going to stop the activity that is actually helping job creation in the United States.

As we can see in 2011, the total number of jobs it helped support was nearly 300,000 jobs. That is a pretty good impact by basically saying, as a program of a financing of last resort, the United States is going to make sure U.S. companies can get their products sold in various marketplaces. That is why the chamber of commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, many companies and organizations are supporting this legislation.

As an added bonus, as I said, it is generating revenue to the U.S. economy. In fact, it has generated a lot of money, $3.7 billion for U.S. taxpayers since 2005. I know some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle think the program could have more transparency. I will vote for more transparency for the Ex-Im Bank. But if one of my colleagues can figure out with more transparency how to get more than $3.7 billion to the U.S. Treasury out of a government program, I would love to hear about it because this is a program that has worked successfully.

Let's talk about some of the places these jobs were created; I mean, actually supported and helped sustain. In Pennsylvania, in 2011, $1.4 billion in export products were helped to be purchased by the Ex-Im Bank and supported over 9,000 jobs in the State. So there is help and support for those small businesses, those manufacturers in Pennsylvania that want to access international markets, but there are purchasers, just like with the SBA program or other finance programs that needed help and support in getting the financing done.

Let's look at Massachusetts, another robust State: $566 million in exports in 2011. That was over 4,000 jobs supported through this Ex-Im program. In my State there are many jobs. We can see from looking at the list of the companies that got support through this, we have--obviously, aviation has done very well with having this kind of financing, particularly competing in a big global market where other countries have this kind of financing tool.

But we also have a lot of small businesses. We have clean tech, we have agriculture, we have a lot of different companies. Texas, probably another State that has been a huge winner in having the Ex-Im program, 35,000 jobs supported by the Ex-Im Bank in Texas and almost $5 billion--$4.9 billion in business that was the done in the State of Texas through this program.

So my colleagues can see this is a very viable and important program to get reauthorized. I know some people think we ought to hold it up, and some are saying let's stop the program altogether--stop it and get rid of it, even though it has been around, it has been a tool, it has been authorized many times on unanimous consent. But now all of a sudden some people think this program has not served the American public and the American job economy very well.

I would differ with them. It has served us very well. Another example is Florida. It has, in 2011, helped support $1.1 billion of Florida products sold in international markets and helped support over 7,600 jobs in that State--again, a big boost to that economy.

Let's look at North Carolina. It has helped support over 3,300 jobs and over $456 million in exports. What I also like about this is that for the first time with this legislation, the textile industry is going to get a member of the Export-Import Bank. That is to further help export products from places such as North Carolina and South Carolina get access to the marketplace and to make sure they are being competitive on an international basis.

The last chart, Ohio, which is over $398 million and 2,888 jobs. So all these are important jobs for our economy. As I said earlier, this program is expiring in May. If we fail to reauthorize it now, what we are going to run into is the Export Bank cutting off those types of businesses, those types of jobs in the very near future because they are almost at their capacity for this year. So instead of saying: Washington or Florida products or Ohio products or Pennsylvania products ready for sale, basically what we are going to say is: U.S. products in a warehouse waiting for opportunity.

We are basically going to say the door is shut on selling these products because we have not gotten our job done in making sure the export program is reauthorized. I hope my colleagues will realize that around here very few things are getting done very efficiently. There are lots of things being held up, and the U.S. economy is paying the price for it. If we cannot push something such as the Ex-Im Bank through this process that again has been authorized and reauthorized so many times either by unanimous consent or voice vote and all of a sudden we are going to turn it into a political football, then the American economy is going to pay the price for that.

I urge my colleagues to help us get this Cantwell-Johnson-Graham-Shelby amendment passed out of the Senate today and on its way to the House so we can expedite the process of making sure we do not have a sign across America: ``U.S. products stuck in warehouse'' but instead we have a sign that says: ``U.S. exports on the gain. United States making great headway and selling great products and services around the globe.''

I know my colleagues earlier today were saying: There are some things people want to change. The amendments people want to offer in this legislation are from people who want to stop this program. This legislation has transparency. It has improvements that have been recommended on market-based rates, and it puts the United States in a competitive advantage to make sure we are competing in a world in which export market opportunity has grown something like 500 times in the last 25 years.

If we want to be in the jobs game, we have to get our products overseas. The Ex-Im Bank will continue to help us do that. I urge my colleagues to support the Cantwell-Johnson-Graham-Shelby amendment.

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