[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5260]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   REAUTHORIZE THE EXPORT-IMPORT BANK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Heck) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HECK of Washington. Madam Speaker, ticktock, ticktock. The 
countdown has begun.
  Beginning tomorrow, there are exactly--count them--30 legislative 
days left before the Export-Import Bank is gone--vanished, 
disappeared--and each day that we fail to address this vital 
institution for American jobs, we let the obstructionists win. We let 
this bipartisan, eight decade champion of American exports go away. The 
irony of it all is, as my dear friend from Texas, Congressman Green, 
once observed, if we didn't have an Export-Import Bank, we would all be 
scurrying around, trying to figure out how to invent it in order to 
compete with every other developed country in the world that has an 
export credit authority.
  Ticktock. Ticktock.
  American companies are, unfortunately, already hurting. It is 
happening now. We don't have to wait for May or June or July 1, which 
is the day the bank will disappear if we do not reauthorize it. I am 
speaking in the present tense. Export contracts are being lost now--
today--as we speak. Production lines are slowing. Labor needs are being 
reevaluated. Let me be clear: American corporations and companies are 
already losing deals to our global competitors because of this 
pointless fight. It is hurting companies now.
  American companies are being penalized because, yet again, 
unfortunately, Congress procrastinates; yet we have a bill to 
reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. We have two bills with substantial, 
broad, deep, bipartisan support--250 Members out of 435, to put a fine 
point on it. There are 60 for Congressman Fincher of Tennessee's bill 
and 190 for Congresswoman Waters', Congresswoman Moore's, and my bill.
  Again, every other developed nation on the face of the planet has an 
export credit authority, and most of them are larger as a percent of 
their gross domestic products than ours is. To allow it to expire is to 
engage in nothing short of--and this is not hyperbole--unilateral 
economic disarmament.
  Ticktock. Ticktock.
  Small businesses are the ones that will be hurt first. Now, I know a 
lot of the focus of debate about the Export-Import Bank is Boeing. Yes, 
Boeing will be hurt. That is for sure. Although, I enjoy reminding 
people that the Boeing Company assembles airplanes, and what they 
depend upon is the supply chain of 12,000 businesses and vendors--
thousands of whom are, in fact, small businesses.
  Nearly 90 percent of all of the Export-Import Bank's transactions are 
to provide loans or loan guarantees to small businesses. They are the 
backbone of our economy. Everybody knows it. Nearly one in three jobs 
created in the last decade was created by small businesses, and they 
will be hurt first, small businesses like STAC, Inc., in Sumner, 
Washington. It is a veteran-owned business that provides industrial 
tapes and adhesives and a host of other fasteners. They predict, as 
their owner told me personally, that they could hire 40 percent more 
staff as a consequence of their exports.
  The truth of the matter is that there is a STAC in every 
congressional district in America--in every town, in every city, in 
every community, in every neighborhood--and they need and use the 
export credit agency of this Nation, the Export-Import Bank, just like 
the businesses of every other developed nation in the world.
  The rest of the world is growing a middle class. We all know it. If 
we want to keep and expand ours, then we are going to have to engage in 
global trade with one of the tools known as the Export-Import Bank. We 
have to sell in to their growing middle class.
  Counting tomorrow, 30 legislative days to go--ticktock, ticktock.

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