[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 158 (Tuesday, October 27, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  IN SUPPORT OF H.R. 597, THE REFORM EXPORTS AND EXPAND THE AMERICAN 
                              ECONOMY ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. GENE GREEN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 27, 2015

  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of 
H.R. 597, legislation to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank of the 
United States, our nation's official export credit agency.
  The Export-Import Bank, created 80 years ago during the depths of the 
Great Depression, has been authorized 16 times by Congress with 
overwhelming bipartisan majorities and has broad support from industry 
and labor for the very simple fact that it works.
  Since 2009, the Ex-Im Bank has supported more than 1.3 million jobs 
and has returned over $2 billion in deficit-reducing profits to the 
U.S. Treasury while providing over $27 billion in export credit last 
year alone.
  My home state of Texas is the number one beneficiary of Ex-Im's 
support for American business and jobs. Nearly one-in-five companies 
receiving financing from the Ex-Im Bank call Texas home. Ex-Im supports 
more than 135,000 jobs in Texas and provides financing to over 1,600 
companies, over half of which are small businesses and nearly 10 
percent are minority-owned.
  The Ex-Im Bank has supported over $11 billion in export sales for 
Houston-area companies for the past five years, more than any other 
region in the country, with $3.5 billion going to local small 
businesses. In fact, Harris County is home to the largest number of 
small businesses that use Ex-Im.
  America has already felt the negative impact of Congress's failure to 
reauthorize Ex-Im and freeze its ability to issue loans for the past 
four months. In September, General Electric, one of America's most 
important domestic manufacturers, announced it would move 500 jobs from 
Texas and other states to France, Hungary, and China because it would 
receive export credit financing overseas that's no longer available 
here.
  Boeing, one of our nation's largest companies, announced in recent 
months that it has lost two satellite manufacturing bids to overseas 
competitors because it no longer had access to Ex-Im financing.
  Mr. Speaker, at a time when foreign competition is becoming more 
fierce than ever before, with nations like China using any means 
necessary to win contracts in overseas markets, Congress must act 
immediately on this pressing matter. I call on all my colleagues to 
stand with working families and American businesses and join me by 
voting to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank.

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