Export-Import Bank

Floor Speech

Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about the Export-Import Bank--the program that is a vital tool of U.S. manufacturers and small businesses across the United States of America to help them grow jobs and gain access to international markets.

There has been a lot written in the last 24, 48 hours about this because there has been a lot of discussion about people who have previously supported the program--maybe voted for it five or six times--and now all of a sudden have either amnesia or have forgotten what is so important about this program.

I am here this morning to talk about this issue because I believe it is so vital to the U.S. economy and to the economic opportunities and challenges we face.

The Export-Import Bank basically gives assistance in the form of securitizing loans that are sought by the private sector when a U.S. company tries to sell a product overseas.

You can imagine that if you are a U.S. manufacturer--and you could be involved in lots of different things; in our State, there is everything from aviation to grain silos to music stands to agricultural products--when you go and say, well, we want to sell to Ethiopia or we want to sell to a South American country or we want to sell to an Asian country--for example, a small businessperson in the State of Washington says: Well, OK, I have found a customer in one of those countries for my product--and I will use grain silos as example because there is a company in our State that now sells grain silos to 82 different countries around the globe--that customer in that country says: Well, how am I going to finance this deal? It is not exactly like this sophistication is present in every one of these developing countries. Yet we want U.S. products to be sold into these developing countries.

I guess we could sit back on our laurels and just think it is all going to happen on its own and let the Europeans sell products into that market or let the Chinese sell products into that market or we could hustle--which is what the United States of America does--and we can figure out a way to secure those deals when those customers have a challenge of financing within their country.

Now, it does not mean that the Export-Import Bank finances all of those deals. It means it provides, in a lot of cases, security so that when a private bank does finance the sale of that deal, there is certainty and predictability.

Why is that important? Well, as one vice president of a bank that operates in 19 different States and the District of Columbia told us: Most banks, even those as large as--in this case--PNC, cannot alone take risks for helping a U.S. company sell in countries with governments that may be less stable than the United States of America.

It makes sense. Right. Look at what we are seeing around the globe. We are seeing lots of change. You cannot count on a deal and account for the capricious nature of governments. If someone stiffs me in Pittsburgh, I will just go to a court in Pittsburgh and win a judgment against these individuals. Well, you cannot practically expand that to a government in Africa or in Asia. You cannot go to a court system here in the United States and say: Hey, that government failed to pay on that particular customer deal that was enacted. But you can, with the help of the Export-Import Bank, secure those loans and make sure that payment is received.

That is why so many small businesses across the State of Washington like and have used this program in conjunction with the private banking industry.

For example, there is a company: Manhasset music stands. I love that company because it makes music stands somewhat like this podium I am speaking in front of that is used for placement of music, and they sell all over the globe. In fact, China is one of their best customers. I love that there is a place in Yakima, WA, that is figuring out how to sell a U.S.-manufactured product in China and that they are continuing to compete with the Chinese every day and winning that battle.

I am so proud that company uses the Export-Import Bank to reduce their risk to those customers because those customers live in a place where the banking and security might not be there.

Why is this so important? Well, first of all, 95 percent of consumers in the world live outside of the United States of America. So unless we just want to sell to people in the United States of America, we better have a pretty good strategy of how we are going to sell to people outside of the United States of America.

So with 95 percent of consumers outside of the United States of America and a rising middle class around the globe--the middle class is going to double in the next 20 years. It is going to double. That means more people with more disposable income to buy products and to use services that are so critical.

Take aviation, for example. Because there is a rising middle class around the globe and a lot more people want to travel, that is 35,000 new airplanes that are in demand. That is how many we are going to have to build over the next 20 years--35,000 new airplanes.

Well, that could be really good news for the United States of America and U.S. manufacturing because those are great middle-class manufacturing jobs. But guess what. Those jobs are not secure. The Brazilians want to build airplanes. The Europeans already build airplanes. The Chinese want to build airplanes. They are all competing for that rising middle-class market that is demanding new airplanes. They all want to get in the action of having manufacturing jobs in their states.

So we need to make sure we implement the Export-Import Bank, which is about to expire on September 30 of this year. Without the Export-Import Bank, we are going to be hobbling businesses across the United States of America and not giving them these tools.

The Export-Import Bank has created thousands of jobs in the United States of America. It has increased exports by $37 billion and helped small businesses and created jobs. It also helps us pay down the Federal deficit. It has generated over $1.057 billion returned to the U.S. Treasury. So it has actually helped us pay down the Federal debt. So my colleagues who are now all of a sudden either having amnesia on why they supported the Ex-Im Bank or not coming forward to support it now need to remember what a vital tool this is to the U.S. economy.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. CANTWELL. I want to close by saying that other countries use these same financial tools. So a lot of my colleagues can see that other countries, for the same reason, when the marketplace does not provide a private sector financial tool to securitize these products--it is important that the United States stay competitive with everybody chasing global market opportunities.

Let's not hobble U.S. manufacturing. Let's get the Export-Import Bank out of committee and reauthorized.

I yield the floor.

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