[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 63 (Monday, May 7, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  IN SUPPORT OF THE EXPORT-IMPORT BANK

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JIM McDERMOTT

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 7, 2012

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, we have spent months in this House 
watching the Republicans create an unstable business environment and 
hurt U.S. jobs while they delay the reauthorization of the Export-
Import Bank. While the Export-Import Bank supports hundreds of 
thousands of American jobs every year at no cost and no risk to the 
taxpayer, the Republicans have been stuck between their radical tea-
party ideology of pure free-markets on one side and the Republican 
Majority's relationship with Delta Airlines on the other. We now have a 
compromise that does not extend the Bank for as long as it needs to be 
or for as much as it needs to be long-term. We also have a real lack of 
understanding in the Congress and in the Public of what this Export-
Import Bank does.
  Over 50 countries have export-import banks and all of the them are 
growing right now. While they are competing and running faster, the 
Republicans have us sitting on our hands and unilaterally disarming. I 
could fill this chamber with the bipartisan, non-partisan, expert 
studies telling us for decades that we here in the United States don't 
do a good job promoting our exports.
  My constituents, the port in my district and the huge number of 
exporting businesses in my district need the same kind of support from 
their government that all of their Chinese, and Indian, and European 
competitors are getting.
  The current deal that's being worked on only reauthorizes the Export-
Import Bank for a few years. My bill uses the same bipartisan framework 
that exists today and would authorize it for 10, through 2021.
  Building on this bipartisan framework, my bill would also truly 
expand the Export-Import Bank's lending authorities, doubling it to 
$200 Billion. The Export-Import Bank makes money for the taxpayer, is 
virtually no risk, and the lending authority should be big enough so 
that it will actually keep up with our exports into the foreseeable 
future. This higher authority, along with the longer extension, will 
create the stability businesses and their workers need.
  Finally, my bill asks the Government Accountability Office to study 
the Export-Import Bank and compare it to the Export-Import Banks its 
competing against in other countries around the world. How are we 
competing now that we have real stability and a cap that's responsible 
but doesn't constrain us? What can the ExIm Bank do better? This is the 
kind of forward analysis Congress needs to help our exporters.
  Mr. Speaker, it's long past time for us to get the lobbyists out of 
the way of all other American businesses so that we can create jobs 
here at home.

                          ____________________