[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 37 (Monday, March 15, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1496-S1497]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            EXPORT PROMOTION

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. We have been working and focused very much in the last 
few weeks on the economy with our tax extender bill as well as the jobs 
bill we passed, and I, for one, am glad. My State is glad, because that 
is what I have been hearing all around my State, especially from small 
businesspeople who have been troubled, are having trouble getting 
credit. Mr. President, as someone who has worked so much on this issue, 
you know how important that is to the strength of our economy, as 65 
percent of our jobs have come from small businesses.
  Today, I would like to take a few minutes to discuss two bipartisan 
bills I recently introduced that I hope will do more to add to the 
creation of jobs, to innovation, to exports. The first one is called 
the Export Promotion Act of 2010, and the second is the Travel 
Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2010.
  Export promotion is a topic of special interest to me. I chair the 
Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion. The 
Export Promotion Act is cosponsored with my good friend on the 
subcommittee, the Republican ranking member, George LeMieux, and also 
by Senators Shaheen and Wyden, who have taken an active interest in 
export promotion.
  We have an important national interest in promoting exports. Access 
to new markets can make the difference between expansion and stagnation 
of a new and developing business. The President recognizes this, and 
that is why I am pleased he called for a doubling of exports in his 
State of the Union speech, a doubling in the next 5 years.
  One way to do this, to take this opportunity to open new markets, is 
going to be Cuba. A bipartisan bill I introduced with Senator Enzi, a 
second bill, would do just that. The bill makes it easier for American 
farmers to export agricultural products to Cuba--currently a closed 
market--by relaxing the restrictions on financial transactions between 
the two countries and by making it easier for American farmers to 
travel there to promote their products. The sponsor of the bill in the 
House is Minnesota Congressman and chair of the Agriculture Committee, 
Colin Peterson.
  Another way to promote American exports is to make sure businesses 
know about the potential export opportunities available to them. 
Currently, the United States derives the smallest percentage of its GDP 
from exports compared to all other major countries. America has always 
been ``the world's customer,'' buying our way and in effect buying our 
way to huge trade deficits. But it is clear that exports will be 
increasingly important to our economy as people in China, India, and 
other developing countries gain more purchasing power and they become 
our potential customers. Right now, more than 95 percent of the world's 
customers are outside our borders. Think of it; with the growing 
economic power of customers in these new developing nations--I was just 
in India a few months ago, and you see that mass of humanity, the 
potential, as that country builds itself up, of people who can buy our 
products from all over our country. More exports will mean more 
business, more jobs, and more growth for the American economy.
  Exports are also important for small businesses for several reasons. 
First and most obviously, exports allow a company to increase its sales 
and grow its business. Second, a diversified base of customers helps a 
business weather the economic ups and downs.
  So there is a world of opportunity out there. I can tell you, I have 
seen it in my own State.
  Mattracks, a company in Karlstad, MN--population 900, known as the 
Moose Capital of Minnesota--is a little company named after a little 
second-grade boy named Matt who came home and drew a picture of tank 
tracks on each wheel instead of going between the wheels. His dad, a 
mechanic, decided to build this product in his machine shop, and they 
now export to dozens and dozens of countries all over the world. They 
started with 5 employees and they are now up to 50. How did they do it? 
They went over to Fargo, ND, which covered this area of Minnesota, and 
talked to a woman named Heather at the Foreign Commercial Service 
Department. They went over there, and she matched them up, like a 
business match.com, with potential countries, from Kazakhstan to 
Turkey, that were interested in their product. That is how they grew 
their business in Karlstad, MN.
  Akkerman, down by Austin, MN, really in the middle of cornfields, is 
a longstanding family business--different from Mattracks--where they 
actually do trenchless digging. They put major steel pipes underground, 
and they have the machinery to push those pipes underground. They can 
dig major trenches underground without actually digging up the 
landscape, without digging up the ground. They have done it in Los 
Angeles, but they are doing it in India. Why? Highly populated areas 
like digging this way; they do not have to dig up over ground to do it. 
Again, as you look at these countries with the kind of infrastructure 
they need, Akkerman is now up to 77 employees--again, in the middle of 
the farmland in southern Minnesota.
  But for so many businesses, it is very difficult to do this because 
for them the world looks like one of those ancient maps that contain 
only the outlines of the continents and a few coastline features. But 
the rest of it is blank space, vast unknown and unexplored territory. 
They know there is something more, they know accessing these markets 
will help them expand their profits, open new facilities, and hire more 
people, but they do not really know how to find out about 
opportunities.
  Fortunately, there is help available. There are a number of Federal 
programs through the Small Business Administration, the Commerce 
Department, and the Export-Import Bank that assist U.S. companies in 
promoting their products abroad. The idea here is to give that kind of 
help to small and medium-sized businesses so they can vet a potential 
customer, so they can find out what is available. They don't have a 
full-time trade department or full-time person looking at each 
continent like a company such as 3M or Cargill--very successful 
businesses in my home State--would have. So they need this help.
  Another example: Epicurean in Duluth, a company that makes commercial 
and home-kitchen cutting surfaces. With 40 employees, it has customers 
in 45 countries. I invited Epicurean's owner, Dave Benson, to join me 
for this year's State of the Union Address, and he thinks we are right 
on track in focusing on the export market.
  What does our bill do? Our bill focuses on expanding the Commerce 
Department programs that help these companies get the word out. It does 
three major things:
  First, it expands the scope of existing Department of Commerce 
programs that help America's small and medium-sized businesses 
commercialize and manufacture new technologies that export abroad.

[[Page S1497]]

  Second, it increases the people at the Department of Commerce who are 
responsible for identifying new export opportunities abroad and 
matching these markets with American companies. For the past 2 years, 
the program that specializes in matching small business with potential 
export markets has not replaced retiring officials, losing roughly 200 
people since 2004 even as demand for their assistance continues to 
increase. This bill would restore staffing levels in this program to 
their 2004 levels. I talked to Secretary Locke this morning. I know he 
is focused on this. He is doing reshuffling of people in his own 
department. That is the key to this.
  Finally, the legislation will expand the Commerce Department's Rural 
Export Initiative to ensure that small and medium-sized businesses 
located in rural areas know about all of the available export 
opportunities for them. Why is this cost-worthy? Well, look at this: a 
return of approximately $213 on each dollar--$213 on each dollar. That 
is what we are talking about here.
  What we are trying to do here, Senator LeMieux and I, with this bill 
and also with our bill regarding Cuba is to open these markets and say: 
You know what, if we can give our small and medium-sized businesses and 
our farmers a little help, either getting in the door, knowing whether 
a customer is real, letting them know where their product is hot, what 
countries are interested, they are going to do the work. These are 
private sector jobs. Our idea here is not to create the jobs ourselves 
but to help them to get into these markets, to make them on an even 
playing field with the big businesses that already have the resources 
to do it.
  The ability to envision creative new products and then develop them, 
commercialize them, and sell them has been part of the American dream 
as long as there has been an American dream. That spirit of innovation 
has gotten us everything in my State from the Post-it note to the 
pacemaker. Those companies--Medtronic started in a garage, and 3M 
started up in Two Harbors, MN, a tiny little town. Target started as a 
dry goods storefront on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, and they grew to 
what they were. But they can only do this now if they get that kind of 
help. It is no longer only America that is their market; it is India, 
it is Kazakhstan, it is Turkey, it is China.
  So it is not as easy now to build to the point that they need to 
build to. That is why Senator LeMieux and I are introducing this bill, 
to assist the Commerce Department to assist these small and medium-size 
businesses. As we continue to fight through this economic crisis, it is 
important to keep the end game in mind, an end game where the United 
States is again the world leader in job creation by virtue of 
developing and selling the world's most innovative products. This bill 
will help us get there.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed 
to engage in a colloquy with the Senator from Connecticut.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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