[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 88 (Wednesday, June 3, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3671-S3674]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXPORT-IMPORT BANK
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I have come to the floor this evening to
join my colleague Senator Heitkamp from North Dakota and to follow
Senator Cantwell from Washington, who spoke earlier this afternoon to
talk about the importance of taking action to reauthorize the Export-
Import Bank before that Bank expires at the end of this month.
At the end of June, the charter for the Export-Import Bank will
expire, and that means billions of dollars of lending by the Bank to
support American manufacturing and exports will come to a halt. I am
sad to say that what we face right now is a completely unnecessary
crisis. There is bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate
for the Export-Import Bank, but we have just days until the charter
expires. We need to begin now the process of reauthorizing this
critical job-creating program.
I know there may be some different ideas in this Chamber about what
the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank should look like. I have
introduced a bill that would reauthorize the bank for 7 years instead
of 4, which has been one of the proposals. My bill would raise the cap
on the lending for the Export-Import Bank instead of keeping it flat,
and I know there are other discussions around language that addresses
the financing of coal-fired powerplants abroad. But regardless of our
different views on the specifics of the reauthorization bill, Democrats
and Republicans should all be able to agree that letting the Bank
expire would be bad for America's businesses, bad for the employees of
those businesses, and bad for our economy. That is because the Export-
Import Bank supports American jobs at zero cost to taxpayers.
Let me just say that again, because I think there is this perception
in some quarters that because we don't have an agreement on
reauthorization, there must be some huge cost involved to the Export-
Import Bank. In fact, it is just the opposite. The Export-Import Bank
puts money into the Treasury of the Federal Government. It doesn't take
money out.
In New Hampshire the Bank has supported $314 million in export sales
for our businesses since 2009. That support translates into more
exports, into more manufacturing, and ultimately into more jobs.
Just this morning we had a number of businesses that rely on the
Export-Import Bank come in to speak to some of the Senators. One person
who was very eloquent with his comments was Michael Boyle from Boyle
Energy in New Hampshire. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that
Michael Boyle's statement be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Examining the Export-Import Bank's Reauthorization Request and the
Government's Role in Export Financing
BES&T is an exporter of U.S. Patented Commissioning
Technology know as SigmaCommissioning. The most advanced
equipment and engineered process available in the world
today. BES&T and Sigma significantly helps its clients
(global energy companies) start (commission) their energy
infrastructure projects for far less cost, fuel, water and
time.
In short, we convert the largest power plants and
refineries from a construction environment into an operating
environment faster, less costly and with a higher degree of
quality than is available anywhere else in the world.
In the first 10 years of BES&T's history we did 90% of our
work in the US.
We then spent 4 years inventing and perfecting our new
commissioning technology before declaring our services,
equipment, and engineering to be out of the R&D stage and
therefore commercially viable.
We began exporting the work. Foreign companies had very
limited technical support for our work and the competition
for technical services was very weak. This meant that our
clients would most likely be first adopters of this new
technology. We were right. We also wanted to be tested, to
apply our services in remote locations, in extraordinary
terms on the toughest projects.
To be certain we could pay our people and vendors should
clients not pay in far off lands, we insured our work with
the EXIM bank. We sought to protect against major cash-flow
disruption as we had little knowledge of collection, legal
recovery, or any other understanding of the commercial codes
of the countries where we were deploying our services. We
could do the work but did not know what we would do if a
foreign buyer did not pay us.
As our service became accepted and our abilities grew, so
did our receivables. We solicited a National US Bank to
provide us with the needed credit to support our working
capital. They were agreeable to it domestically but we were
informed that they had no means of securing our collateral to
perfect full collection from foreign countries if we were to
default. Even though those receivables were insured. So we
worked with them to apply for a working capital guarantee
package with EXIM much as we had done when we bought our
first building using 504 support through the SBA. We were
approved and fees were required and paid. Since the time we
began with the credit insurance and the working capital LOC
we have had neither claims nor losses that required EXIM
support to the bank.
Here are some of the results. In the 7 years since we began
exporting and working with EXIM we have:
Become known as the most advanced technical commissioning
service company in power in 22 countries
Spent $71 million on the cost of producing our work:
Trucking, Pipe and materials, Valves, Pumps, Filters,
Manpower, Airfare, Fabrication, Chemicals, Hoses, Fittings,
Ocean Freight, Air Freight
Spent $25 million on back office or SGA support.
Paid 25% of our profits in federal taxes to the Treasury
Department
Repatriated all of our profits.
Increased our revenue 4x
Increased our employment 6x
Paid 100% health insurance for all our workers.
Paid Christmas and Profit sharing bonuses
Provided an average wage of $100K USD over our entire
employment force
Increased benefits by adding dental, 401k, Life insurance,
PTO, Family Leave etc.
Worked in 22 countries
Filed for and received further US Patents
Received an Audit by the IRS with received a notice of no
changes or faults.
Donated $218,000 to local charities and non-profits in New
Hampshire
Successfully completed 60 projects
Completed 5x the revenue in the second 10 years of the
company as was completed in the first 10 years
Eliminated 80,000,000 gallons of hazardous chemical waste
in foreign countries.
Opened new markets in Oil and Gas production to augment
power plant work.
Commissioned more than 27,351 megawatts of power and
200,000 barrels of oil per year from natural gas.
I personally have so enjoyed, and our company has benefited
so much from the experience of and value derived from the
EXIM bank that I was honored to be asked to volunteer my time
to serve on the Advisory Committee of the bank, and have
cosigned the 2013 and 2014 Competitiveness Report to the
Congress of the United States. During that time I was chosen
to serve as Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Public
Engagement to the Advisory committee. I have also worked and
consulted directly with Chairman Fred Hochberg on the issues
impacting small business. I have also been asked to consult
on the operational content and usability of the website
offered by the bank. I have given voice to my experience to
members of Congress, regional resource and economic
development offices in New Hampshire, to local businesses
thinking of working with EXIM. I have even been so honored as
to join Chairman Hochberg in a discussion of the EXIM bank in
the Roosevelt Room of the Whitehouse. To date my finest hour.
I can therefore state that I have been witness to positive
changes in the bank's operating approach since my colleagues
and I
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volunteered to serve on the advisory committee. We, and the
information we have imparted, have had a direct impact on the
bank because the bank's leadership was fully intent on
providing the best support not just to small business, but to
all businesses using the bank's services. The bank and each
and every employee of the EXIM bank I met and worked with
cared greatly about our concerns and took action to make the
experience and value greater.
I have very good knowledge of the value of this bank to
both the US exporter companies using the bank and the
taxpayers in the US.
While I wish that there were no ECA global competition for
credit support, there is. In as much as I have read and been
required to review and make comment on the OECD and Non-OECD
research of the activities of the global competitors to US
exporting I am fully aware that both good and bad actors are
in abundance across the world, and that their supporting ECAs
are outspending in both percentage and real dollars the EXIM
bank of the US. These actions are deliberate and these
organizations will go to great lengths to create the
unbalanced competition that we would like to have eradicated.
Until such time as there is no further need for global ECA
competition, I would therefore ask the House and Senate of
the United States to consider the following actions.
1. Re-authorize the EXIM bank for 7 years.
2. Add an additional 20 billion USD authority to the Bank
3. Allow the bank greater flexibility to advertise its
existence and benefits.
4. Allow the bank greater budget flexibility to conduct
regional training and recruitment of customers.
5. Establish treaties with Non-OECD countries to severely
restrict and penalize unfair ECA support or non-competitive
actions related to exports
6. Ensure 100% compliance with the law of the United States
and all foreign Borrower nations.
7. Ensure that US policy support by the bank is fair and
equally balanced.
8. Promote the establishment of a global Uniform Commercial
Code or similar instrument for the security of international
assets derived from commercial transactions.
9. Empower domestic banks to further support export credit
of viable receivables and exported collateral under some
strict country limitation schedule.
10. Negotiate ECA interest rates worldwide to stabilize
differentials.
11. Vigorously promote the bank to small businesses.
In conclusion, we, as American business people value our
support from our government. I personally have benefited from
being a citizen of the United States. When I was young my
mother reached out for food stamps and welfare to assist us
till we could get on our feet. I had school lunch programs in
the public schools I attended. Not being able to afford
college I joined the United States Navy. I was trained to be
a boiler technician over a 6 year period. I traveled the
world on 3 destroyers and a tender and earned a great
education in life, leadership, steam, and boilers. I was
honorably discharged and have gone on to build a family and a
company. My company has 60 families employed and we all still
travel the world and we still work on boilers. I have been
blessed to have the people and government of these United
States beside me then and beside me now. I have estimated
that my work in this regard has returned many times over the
money given to my mother for my benefit and the salary I
earned in the Navy. I have visited the White House, and am
now here in the Capitol speaking to our Congress. Beyond all
that I have accomplished, my mother and father are proud, my
wife and sons too.
So I will make you a promise. When I don't need to use the
EXIM bank any longer, when we have grown our business and
employed hundreds more people, I will stop using the bank.
But even then, I will volunteer my time to defend this
organization and its people, and to help each and every small
business that asks me to help them learn to export and how to
do so with EXIM.
I love my country, am grateful to have its help, and wish
to thank the Congress for making this valuable tool
available.
Thank you for the honor of participating in this
discussion.
God Bless the United States of America.
Michael P. Boyle,
President and CEO.
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Michael Boyle is the CEO of Boyle Energy Services and
Technology. They have a facility in Concord, NH, which I have had the
good fortune to visit. They do great work. This testimony is what
Michael gave before the House Committee on Financial Services this
morning at a hearing that examined the Export-Import Bank's
reauthorization request and the government's role in export financing.
As I said, Boyle Energy does impressive work. They optimize energy
performance in power and energy infrastructure construction projects.
Their services have reduced greenhouse gas emissions and eliminated
millions of gallons of hazardous waste at facilities around the world.
It is a great American small business story. Boyle Energy got connected
with the Export-Import Bank a number of years ago at a forum in New
Hampshire where the Ex-Im Bank announced its Global Access for Small
Business Program to help small businesses export.
Right now, about 40 percent of large businesses export, but only 1
percent of small and medium-sized businesses export in the United
States. Yet 95 percent of markets are outside of America. We need to
help businesses such as Boyle Energy get into those international
markets. That is exactly what the Ex-Im Bank has done. With the Export-
Import Bank's support, Boyle Energy has grown its international sales
75 percent over the last 3 years.
Before using the Export-Import Bank's credit insurance, the company
shipped just to Mexico and Canada. But now Boyle has customers in over
a dozen countries. Their exports comprise 60 percent of the company's
$15 million in sales, and 10 of its 50 employees support their increase
in international sales. Without the Bank, Boyle Energy's success just
wouldn't be possible.
Last year the Ex-Im Bank supported $10.7 billion worth of exports by
American small businesses. So this is not just the big guys. It is not
just the General Electrics and the Boeings. It is small businesses such
as we have in New Hampshire where 96 percent of our employers are small
businesses. We should not take this important tool--this financing tool
for our small businesses--away from America's job creators.
I think it is important to note that it is not just the direct users
of the Bank's products that will suffer. It will also hurt those
smaller companies that sell to larger companies who use Ex-Im Bank
financing, for example, manufacturers such as Albany Engineering in
Rochester, NH, which makes parts for airplane engines. Timken in Keene
and Lebanon sell their products to Boeing. When we cut off financing
for those products, it is going to have a real impact on American
manufacturing. It is going to have an impact on jobs in New Hampshire
and across this country.
Now is the time for us to come together. We can do this. We can get
this authorization done. We have support in this Chamber to reauthorize
the Ex-Im Bank, to help our small businesses so we can get them into
the international markets. We need to do this reauthorization before
the Bank charter expires at the end of this month, and I urge my
colleagues to join us in taking action.
I yield the floor, and I thank Senator Heitkamp for her leadership on
this issue.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
Ms. HEITKAMP. Mr. President, this is a story and a movie we see all
too frequently in this Chamber and in the Congress--manufactured crisis
after manufactured crisis after manufactured crisis. Here we are a few
short days away from actually seeing the charter of the Export-Import
Bank expire.
Think about that--a 70-year institution, a critical piece of trade
infrastructure. We spent the better part of the last work period
talking about trade promotion authority, and for very many of us this
was a very difficult vote. It was a conflicting vote. At the end of the
day, the one argument that sells the day is that 95 percent of all
consumers in the world live outside the United States.
If we are not participating in trade, if we are not working to make
sure our exports are competitive, if we are not making a difference for
American manufacturers, we are going to lose the competition for the
customer. We are going to lose the opportunity to grow our
manufacturing base.
So the Export-Import Bank--not a lot of people know what it is, but
the people who do and the businesses that do know this is a critical
piece of trade infrastructure. The irony perhaps of this whole issue is
there is no one--there is no group outside of conservative think tanks
that does not agree the Export-Import Bank needs to be reauthorized.
We have the U.S. Chamber of Commerce begging us in the Banking
Committee to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. We have the National
Association of Manufacturers that tells us overwhelmingly--the people
who support that trade association, who are represented by that trade
association, want reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. We know
the unions that
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represent the workers who work in these industries have been asking us
to do the right thing.
So here we are, once again, at the eleventh hour. Last year, we
agreed to a short-term extension, 6 months, believing we would not be
in this spot today, believing we would not be at the last minute
threatening the charter of the Export-Import Bank. So guess what. We
have over $15 billion of credit in the pipeline. Think about 15 billion
dollars' worth of manufacturing exports in this country. I want you to
think not about the manufacturing exports, I want you to think about
what that means, what that means for the American worker who works in
those manufacturing facilities. They look at this and they say that you
are all about the economy. You all run saying that we are all about
jobs, we are all about improving the economy, creating opportunity by
getting American manufacturing back on its feet. Yet we cannot do
something that has been done for 70 years and frequently by unanimous
consent in this body.
So where is the opposition? The opposition is nothing more than
ideology. The opposition comes from conservative think tanks that score
this, that scare Members and say that if you agree to reauthorize the
Export-Import Bank, that will be a black mark on your record. You will
not be with us. You know what. It is time we were with the American
workers. It is time we were with the small businesses. It is time we
dispel the myth of this institution, the Export-Import Bank, and start
talking about this as a job-creating entity.
I have a chart here. It is a theme that Senator Kirk and I are
sounding. Senator Kirk and I have the bipartisan bill that we would
like to see advanced in this body to reauthorize the Export-Import
Bank. We have tried very hard to balance the concerns people have for
reform with a reauthorization that gives some level of certainty to
American manufacturing, to the institutions that finance them. Make no
mistake, it is not that this is public money. Simply what we are saying
is, if a bank gives a loan to an American manufacturer, if a smalltown
bank gives a loan to an American manufacturer, we will help guarantee
that loan. It is like an SBA--it is like an SBA for manufacturing
exports.
What is next? We are going to take on the SBA because they are doing
too much good to help American businesses? So I want you to think about
this: 164,000 American jobs. Those are direct American jobs, not the
secondary jobs that we know come from this primary sector, development.
When you look at economics, you think about those jobs that are
secondary and those jobs that are primary sector.
Every manufacturing job that deals with exports is a primary sector
job. It is new wealth creation for our State. Economically, that is
manna from Heaven because that new wealth comes here in the payments
for exports. It circulates around our economy, allows our retail
businesses to thrive, allows our restaurants and our secondary
businesses, whether they are dry cleaners, whether they are people in
the service industry, to support those primary sector jobs.
So 164,000 primary jobs, exports of $27.5 billion--$27.5 billion--
those are all U.S. exports supported by the Ex-Im Bank. When we look at
it, guess what. People say: Well, it must cost us something to do this.
It must cost the American taxpayers something to fund the Export-Import
Bank if we are seeing those kinds of results. Guess what. Not only does
it not cost us, it returned $7 billion to the Treasury.
Think about that. What is wrong with this? What is bad about this?
Where is this failing the taxpayers of this country? Where is this
failing the American worker? The simple answer is it is not. What is
failing the American worker is this institution, the United States
Congress, because we are failing to hand the tools to those businesses
that can, in fact, create jobs, create economic wealth, and move our
country forward. People will say: Oh, my goodness. It is all of those
big companies. It is GE, it is Boeing, and that is really whom we are
talking for.
Well, I want to kind of look behind the curtain of that a little bit,
not just talk about small businesses in my State that are going to
benefit and the agricultural producers that benefit from this
institution. Think about the literally thousands of small businesses
that support Boeing, the thousands of small businesses that support the
folks at GE. Think about the businesses that actually are the
contractors with these large institutions that make parts, that make
the sandwiches that feed the employees. This is primary sector growth.
We know that adds to the benefit of the entire economy.
So let's talk a little bit about why someone from North Dakota cares
about the Export-Import Bank. If you look at more than 58,000 small
businesses around the country depending on the Export-Import Bank to
finance the export deals, they will all lose if we do nothing. There is
$15.9 billion, as I said, in the pipeline.
The Export-Import Bank has supported $139 billion in sales in North
Dakota alone, since 2007, and $102 million in exports from our State.
Think about that--the little State of North Dakota, how significant
this institution is.
I want to tell the story of a small business. We heard just heart-
wrenching stories, one from California, an entrepreneur who gave his
all in Vietnam, 100-percent disabled. He has a small business, had a
dream, living the American dream, serving his country. Guess what. He
lost. Because of the uncertainty here, he lost a $57 million contract
putting over 100 people out of work. Right now, he is challenged
because he has a $200 million contract on the line waiting for
reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. Because--guess what--the
people he is selling to are not going to wait to find out if he has
financing. They are going to turn to the next manufacturer. Do you know
who that next manufacturer is? That next manufacturer is China.
Do you think our competitors across the world, whether it is India or
China, who are not looking at reforming their export credit
organization--guess what they are doing. They are pumping billions of
dollars more. They are taking advantage of this. They are taking
advantage of this opportunity. This is a sign in the Beijing airport:
``The Export Import Bank of China. Want to be the best in a better
world?''
They are not hiding this. They are not saying that is inappropriate.
They are bragging about it. They are bragging where they think those
businessmen are coming in and taking a look at where that financing
opportunity is. You might say: Well, the private sector can do it. That
is not true. That is absolutely not true. We have had representation
from almost every financial organization in this town saying we need
the Export-Import Bank to support our customers who need to have that
credit for their exports.
So I want to close talking about a great business in Wahpeton, ND, a
town I grew up very close to. WCCO Belting in Wahpeton, ND, is a great
example. It is a 60-year-old, family-owned rubber supply company, which
started out as a shoe repair business and diversified into repairing
parts for farm trucks and then into new seats for tractors, canvass
belting, and wooden slats.
Today, the company provides rubber products used in farm equipment,
such as belts for harvesting grain or producing round bailers or tube
conveyers to move seeds and grain. Those are supplied to major farm
equipment companies around the world. You know what. The simple fact
is--and they will tell you if they were standing right here--that
company could not have done it without the Export-Import Bank 12 years
ago, which allowed WCCO Belting to pursue export opportunities it had
been ignoring. The Bank has supported more than $830,000 in exports
from WCCO since 2007. The Export-Import Bank helps make sure small
businesses get paid in a timely fashion for what they sell. Not getting
paid in a timely manner from foreign entities very quickly can put a
small business out of work.
The company now has 200 employees who generate more than 60 percent
of their annual sales from revenues from customers who are located
outside of the United States, all possible because of the Export-Import
Bank. Without the Bank, they would be unable to compete in this global
marketplace. This is one of those stories in Washington, DC, that makes
the rest of the world believe Washington does not get it, that the
United States Congress
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does not get it. Because they do not live in their world, they live in
the real world, where you have to finance what you have, where those
challenges get harder and harder every day, and where you are competing
in a market where people do this.
There are 70 export credit agencies in the world, all competing for
the same business, all helping their homegrown businesses compete for
the same business we are competing for. Unilateral disarmament. So it
was not for any other purpose than the passion we have for this
institution that Senator Cantwell and I started talking about this
during the TPA discussion, started saying: We need a path forward so
the charter of the Bank does not expire, so that we actually
reauthorize the Bank before the end of this month.
I would like to tell you that the prospects are great, that the
overwhelming economic logic of the Export-Import Bank has overcome all
of the ideological discussions. I would love to tell you that. I would
love to tell you we are absolutely doing something in a timely fashion,
we are doing something that makes common sense. Guess what. We are not.
We are going to see the charter expire unless we, every day, come here
and beg for a vote, unless we see movement in the House of
Representatives, so that the charter does not expire. I am saying: Do
not leave the small businesses of this country, the hope of this
country behind. Let's reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, let's do it
sooner rather than later, and let's actually respond to the concerns of
the American manufacturing population.
I yield the floor.
____________________