Export-Import Bank

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, we have had a number of our colleagues come to the floor to talk about the importance of the Export-Import Bank, and I want to see if I can put in context the exceptionally important work done by our colleagues Senator Cantwell and Senator Heitkamp on this issue.

We have been talking in this body for weeks now about the importance of trade and particularly tapping global markets, given the fact that there are going to be 1 billion middle-class people in the developing world in 2025. This is an exceptional opportunity for us to be able to sell the products we make here, whether they are computers or wine or helicopters or planes, you name it.

We had a big debate about trade promotion authority. What I want to spend just a few minutes talking about is whether a Senator was for trade promotion authority or not, they ought to support the Export-Import Bank because the Export-Import Bank provides key financing tools to promote products that are made in my home State, in the States of our colleagues, and all across the land. It has supported tens of thousands of American jobs--even hundreds of thousands--for decades. It doesn't cost American taxpayers a single dime. In fact, the Export-Import Bank covers its own costs and then some. It actually generates revenue for taxpayers--$7 billion over the last two decades and $675 million in fiscal year 2014 alone.

So what I would submit is the Export-Import Bank is a way to ensure that in this country we get trade done right. I happen to believe it makes sense to support the trade promotion act because that is going to ensure that we are going to have a chance to drive down some of those tariffs that are barriers to American products. Whether you are for it or not, you ought to support the Export-Import Bank because it provides key tools so we can reduce barriers to our exports, take on modern challenges that threaten American workers, and fight to create more high-wage jobs in the United States because it provides the financing you need in order to actually secure one of these deals. The Export-Import Bank is a core part of getting trade done right.

Countries, including Germany, Japan, Mexico, and Canada, all have agencies that are up and running and do it in a fashion that make their exports more competitive. How are they doing it? They are using financing tools, including supporting their manufacturers and pushing their products into the global marketplace.

As Senators Cantwell and Heitkamp have said, we need this tool to make sure our country doesn't fall behind. We shouldn't let the Export-Import Bank become some kind of ideological pinata that you keep bashing on, not recognizing it will hurt our competitiveness. I think it would be legislative malpractice to let the Bank expire because it would needlessly endanger the thousands of businesses and tens of thousands of jobs supported by Ex-Im, including many in my home State.

In particular, in Oregon, one can see that Ex-Im is a very substantial help to small- and medium-sized companies. In fact, 86 percent of the funds disbursed in fiscal year 2014 went to small businesses. Thanks to the Export-Import Bank, companies in Albany could find markets abroad and hire new workers. They manufacture important things such as titanium casting.

Selmet is a perfect example, a company that got its start in my home State years ago. Today, it employs hundreds of people in Oregon and across the United States, and 40 percent of its revenue comes from overseas. They got off the ground with help from Ex-Im Bank, and it has customers in France, Germany, and Asia, and it is looking to expand further.

These kinds of success stories are ones you see in every single State because these startups got help when it was essential to have that added boost to be able to seize the opportunities around the world and create high-skilled, high-wage jobs.

To me, when we debate the future of the Export-Import Bank, colleagues, this is about red, white, and blue jobs. Keeping the Export-Import Bank up and running with the important financing tools it offers is part of getting trade done right.

I commend our colleagues Senators Cantwell, Heitkamp, Murray, and Graham, who have come together in a bipartisan way to work to extend the Bank as quickly as possible, and they have my support.

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