[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8436-8439]
[From the U.S. 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.

[[Page 8437]]

       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 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

[[Page 8438]]

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 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

[[Page 8439]]

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 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.

                          ____________________