[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 63 (Wednesday, April 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2253-S2255]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



             Unanimous Consent Request--Executive Calendar

  Mr. President, right now, American manufacturers and American workers 
are not competing on a level playing field with foreign competitors. 
The Export-Import Bank is a vital tool for manufacturers in Ohio. In 
other States, it is helping them export Ohio products around the world. 
It is helping them compete in the global marketplace. Yet, for an 
unbelievable 3 years, the Export-Import Bank has been forced to stop 
most of its work.
  I am joined on the floor today by Senator Heitkamp of North Dakota, 
who will make the case, as I do, that it makes no sense that some 
special interest groups have stopped and some ideology way out in right 
field has stopped the Senate from doing its job with the Export-Import 
Bank.
  Over these 3 years, 95 export credit agencies around the globe, 
including China's massive export credit agencies, have been 
aggressively helping foreign

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competitors win sales and the jobs that come with them--jobs that would 
be in the United States but that don't exist in this country--if the 
administration and the Republican Congress would do their job and move 
forward on the Export-Import Bank.
  China provides more credit every 2 years than the Export-Import Bank 
has in its 80-year history. If Congress is serious about ensuring 
American businesses stay competitive, we have to have a functional 
export-import credit agency, but this Congress has done the opposite. 
It starved the Bank of the nominees it needs to function, it has 
crippled its ability to support American jobs for no reason that 
anybody can figure out. Right now, the Export-Import Bank under law 
can't finance any transaction worth more than $10 million because under 
the law, if it doesn't have a quorum, it can't do that.
  The Bank's opponents in the Senate have spent years blocking votes on 
Board nominees because they want to kill the Bank. It is a small 
minority of Members of this Senate and the House, but they have had 
their way with their parliamentary tricks. Every additional day of 
delay means lost contracts in Ohio, North Dakota, North Carolina, 
Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, and lost contracts mean lost jobs and 
additional costs to taxpayers. Without new transactions, the Bank will 
not be able to self-finance its operations.
  If the Bank is fully reopened, it expects to return more than $600 
million to the Treasury, meaning more jobs, more businesses, more tax 
revenues, but we are not doing it.
  Tomorrow the Ex-Im Bank will begin its annual conference. Senior 
officials from the administration, including Secretary of Commerce 
Wilbur Ross and White House National Trade Council Director Peter 
Navarro will be in attendance. Why are they there? They played no role 
in keeping the Export-Import Bank functioning. This meeting is usually 
an opportunity for American exporters to learn about how Ex-Im can help 
them grow their business.
  I have dozens of those companies. There are some big ones like GE, 
large businesses such as Boeing. Both do a lot of business in my State, 
provide a lot of jobs, but it is the smaller companies that most people 
in this Chamber--I have heard of them because I work with them--but 
most people in this Chamber haven't heard of these small companies that 
benefit.
  Instead, the Bank tomorrow will have to warn American companies that 
it is prohibited from doing its work. The Bank is hobbled. There will 
not be a single member of the Board of Directors to represent the Bank 
at its own conference. Why? Because we haven't confirmed any of them.
  To businesses in Ohio, this makes no sense. They don't understand why 
President Trump will not do anything about it. He has refused. They 
don't understand why Senator McConnell will not do anything about this. 
He has refused.
  Dozens of American goods are not being manufactured and sold because 
the Bank is crippled. American companies sit on the sidelines.
  Ohio is the home to GE Aviation, which designs and builds the most 
advanced commercial aircraft engines in the world. Senator Portman and 
I have both seen the work they do. Senator Portman, my Republican 
colleague in Ohio, is very supportive of the Bank. He and I have seen 
up close this plant and their incredible technology. They build the 
best aircraft engines in the world. GE Aviation supports 24,000 workers 
in Alabama, Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Mississippi. 
That doesn't include the thousands of workers who are their supplier 
partners. They all risk losing business because their foreign 
competitors have a tool they don't.
  GE can offer the best workforce, the best technology, but without the 
Export-Import Bank, they can't match the financing the foreign airline 
gets from the United Kingdom when they buy Rolls Royce engines. GE is 
far from alone. Many manufacturers, as I said, are being hurt.
  When Ex-Im was fully operational, it provided $20 billion in 
financing to American companies and supported nearly 165,000 jobs. 
These are generally good-paying union manufacturing jobs. Maybe that is 
part of the problem. They are union jobs, and I know the opponents of 
Export-Import Bank aren't wild about union jobs.
  This past fiscal year that financing was cut by more than two-thirds. 
The Bank supports 40,000 jobs. It went from 165,000 before to 40,000 
now. That is why the demand for reopening the Bank is overwhelming--the 
National Association of Manufacturers, the chamber of commerce, the 
Aerospace Industries Association--one after another after another--the 
Ohio Manufacturers' Association and small business across the country.
  President Trump last year said he wanted the Bank to get back to 
work, but he nominated somebody who was determined to kill the Bank. We 
voted down that nomination with a bipartisan vote, and we supported 
four others who wanted and believed in the Export-Import Bank and 
wanted to make it work.
  Let's deliver for American businesses and American workers. Let's 
reopen the Bank. Let's make sure the Bank supports another 125,000 
jobs. We can't wait any longer. The Senate has waited 4 months. Senator 
McConnell doesn't seem to want to move on this. President Trump doesn't 
want to do anything about this. There are $44 billion in transactions 
at the Bank that need Board approval. All of these opportunities for 
job creation and all these opportunities for growing American 
businesses could be lost.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to 
executive session for the en bloc consideration of the following 
nominations: Executive Calendar Nos. 579 and 580, Spencer Bachus; No. 
581, Judith Pryor; No. 582, Kimberly Reed; No. 583 and 584, Claudia 
Slacik; and No. 585, Mark Greenblatt; that the Senate proceed to vote 
on the nominations en bloc with no intervening action or debate; that 
if confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid 
upon the table; that no further motions be in order to the nominations; 
that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the 
Record, and the President be notified of the Senate's action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. TOOMEY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I have long 
advocated for profound reform of the Export-Import Bank. My preference 
has long been that the U.S. administration--in fact, this was an 
obligation of the previous administration which it chose to ignore--but 
that the U.S. administration negotiate among our trading partners a 
mutual phaseout of these taxpayer-subsidized export entities.
  My objection to this is the embedded taxpayer subsidy, the embedded 
taxpayer risk in every transaction the Ex-Im does. The special interest 
I am defending here today is the American taxpayer.
  Now, I am pretty sure I am not going to change anyone's mind on the 
floor tonight, so let me just make clear about where we are with these 
nominees. During the Banking Committee hearings, I and other colleagues 
made it clear. I would support the nominees to fill the vacancies on 
the Board provided that a reformer such as Scott Garrett was included 
among them. I would have supported restoring the quorum with the 
confidence that there would have been at least a good-faith effort to 
begin the kind of reforms we need. Unfortunately, the committee chose 
not to advance Scott Garrett, who would have done, I think, a very good 
job bridging the gap between the opponents and proponents of Ex-Im 
Bank, but that was not to be.
  Instead, Ex-Im supporters are now asking to confirm the remaining 
nominees but not include Scott Garrett, who has taken himself out of 
the running at this point, nor would it include any other person as 
President.
  What would the consequences of this be if this unanimous consent 
request were agreed to? The Ex-Im Bank would constitute a quorum, would 
resume doing multimillion- and multibillion-dollar deals, all which 
would put taxpayers at risk and there would be no prospect of any 
meaningful reform.
  I remain open to finding a new candidate who can lead Ex-Im and 
implement the kind of reforms that are needed, but that is not what is 
on the table at the moment, and until that time comes, I cannot support 
the confirmation of these additional Board members, which would 
reconstitute the quorum; therefore, I object.

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  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I am disappointed that we can't confirm the 
Ex-Im nominees today. I know many other Senators want to resolve this 
situation.
  I will continue to push to reopen the Ex-Im Bank.
  We were willing--the majority of the Banking Committee was willing to 
flip and put Mr. Garrett as one of the members, one of the four 
members, and make Mr. Bachus, another former House Member, who is 
qualified and is a supporter of the Ex-Im Bank Chairman. We were 
willing to have Scott Garrett on this Board but not as Chairman because 
the Chairman sets the agenda. Mr. Garrett would not, when questioned by 
Senator Heitkamp, who asked him tough questions, would not commit to 
the committee that he wasn't out to destroy and undermine the Bank. We 
were willing to put Mr. Garrett there, just not in the Chairman's 
position. It is clear Mr. Garrett, on behalf of the Vice President and 
a small number of Members of this body, want to undermine and destroy 
the Ex-Im Bank. There is no question about that.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.