[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5146 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5146

       To provide for certain actions by the International Trade 
Administration in order to increase exports by small- and medium-sized 
                  enterprises, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 29, 2016

   Mrs. Bustos (for herself, Ms. Kuster, Mr. Himes, Mr. Quigley, Mr. 
  Beyer, Mr. Polis, Mr. Kilmer, Mr. Foster, Mr. Carney, and Mr. Kind) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                            Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
       To provide for certain actions by the International Trade 
Administration in order to increase exports by small- and medium-sized 
                  enterprises, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Boosting America's Exports Act''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Commercial service.--The term ``Commercial Service'' 
        means the United States and Foreign Commercial Service of the 
        Department of Commerce.
            (2) Director general.--The term ``Director General'' means 
        the Assistant Secretary for Global Markets and Director General 
        of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service.
            (3) Small- and medium-sized enterprises.--The term ``small- 
        and medium-sized enterprises'' or ``SMEs'' means--
                    (A) subject to subparagraph (B), firms with less 
                than 500 employees; and
                    (B) in the case of a farm, a farm with fewer than 
                500 employees that generates less than $250,000 in 
                income.
            (4) Under secretary.--The term ``Under Secretary'' means 
        the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade.
            (5) USEAC.--The term ``United States Export Assistance 
        Center'' or ``USEAC'' means a United States Export Assistance 
        Center established by the Commercial Service to provide 
        assistance to United States firms in exporting their goods and 
        services.

SEC. 3. ASSESSMENT OF U.S. EXPORT ASSISTANCE CENTERS.

    (a) In General.--The Under Secretary shall conduct an assessment of 
the location of and services provided by the United States Export 
Assistance Centers in relation to the location of SMEs that are 
exporters or potential exporters of products or services. The Under 
Secretary shall, not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment 
of this Act, complete the assessment and submit to Congress a report on 
the assessment. In the report, the Under Secretary shall identify those 
locations of USEACs that should be closed or moved based on low 
productivity, and those locations where a USEAC should be located based 
on need.
    (b) Implementation.--The Under Secretary shall implement the 
changes recommended in the report submitted to Congress under 
subsection (a) not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment 
of this Act. The Under Secretary may establish up to 30 new USEACs on 
the basis of the report.

SEC. 4. ACTIVITIES OF COMMERCIAL SERVICE.

    (a) Increased Activities.--The Under Secretary shall take the 
necessary steps, through actions by the Commercial Service, to increase 
the exports, by volume and types of products and services, by small- 
and medium-sized enterprises. In order to achieve that goal, the 
Director General shall set goals and measure exports by SMEs in each 
calendar year, in particular exports by SMEs that had not exported 
previously, including measuring--
            (1) the total volume of exports, by product and type of 
        services, including as compared to the volume of such exports 
        in the preceding calendar year;
            (2) the number of non-exporting SMEs contacted through 
        recruitment efforts of the Commercial Service;
            (3) the number of new SMEs exporting in the calendar year; 
        and
            (4) customer service, such as response times and customer 
        satisfaction, to SMEs that contact USEACs, in particular non-
        exporting SMEs.
    (b) Personnel for USEACs.--The Under Secretary shall ensure that 
the following is carried out upon the implementation of the report 
submitted under section 3:
            (1) Functions of personnel.--Personnel at each USEAC shall 
        identify and conduct outreach to potential exporters that are 
        SMEs, attend relevant business conferences and trade shows to 
        advertise the availability of the resources of the USEAC to 
        SMEs, and perform other tasks designed to help non-exporting 
        SMEs become exporters.
            (2) Additional personnel.--The Under Secretary shall, in 
        the case of those USEACs that the report submitted to Congress 
        under section 3 recommends remain open, increase the personnel 
        at those USEACs (by an average of not more than 5 for each 
        USEAC) to the extent necessary to enhance the ability of the 
        USEACs, through outreach and provision of services to SMEs, to 
        increase exports by SMEs, in particular non-exporting SMEs.
            (3) Trade specialists.--The Director General shall ensure 
        that specialists in an increased number of areas are on the 
        staff of USEACs in order to serve an increased number of SMEs.
            (4) Collaboration with other entities.--The Director 
        General shall ensure that staff at each USEAC is assigned to 
        conduct outreach to and collaborate with entities of the States 
        and other non-Federal entities with respect to export promotion 
        activities designed to increase exports by SMEs.
            (5) Administrative personnel.--The Director General shall 
        ensure that USEACs have personnel dedicated to administrative 
        duties as needed in order to enable other personnel to work 
        more on client-oriented tasks.

SEC. 5. ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    The Under Secretary shall submit to Congress an annual report on 
the implementation of this Act, including the actions of the Director 
General under section 4.
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