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Hagan urges swift reauthorization for Export-Import Bank
Story Date: 3/20/2012
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U.S. Senator Kay R. Hagan (NC), a member of the Senate Banking and Small Business Committees, today urged her colleagues to support the Export-Import Bank Reauthorization of 2012.The measure is now being considered as an amendment to the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (H.R. 3606). The Banking Committee approved this bipartisan reauthorization effort by voice vote last fall, but the bank’s temporary extension will expire on May 31st if the full Congress doesn’t act before then.
“Jobs are my number one priority, and reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank is a commonsense, bipartisan way to support homegrown companies and local jobs without adding a dime to the deficit,” said Hagan. “My four favorite words are ‘Made in North Carolina,’ and I am doing everything I can do get that label all around the globe. Ex-Im Bank is a lifeline for growth for thousands of small businesses who are ready to expand, hire and export. As our economy continues to recover, now is not the time to let partisan bickering hold up progress on jobs, and I urge my colleagues to support a swift reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank.”
The Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank is an independent federal agency that helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by filling gaps in private export financing at no cost to American taxpayers. The Bank provides a variety of financing mechanisms, including working capital guarantees, export-credit insurance, and financing to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. goods and services.
The Bank is self-financed and does not add to the deficit. In fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that a reauthorization of the Bank will reduce the deficit by $900 million over five years. Operations of the Ex-Im Bank generate funds that are returned to the Treasury, and since 2005, these proceeds have reduced the deficit by $3.7 billion. Ex-Im Bank's total authorizations are supporting an estimated $41 billion in U.S. export sales and approximately 290,000 American jobs in communities across the country.
Since 2007, in North Carolina alone, the Ex-Im Bank has supported over $1.8 billion in export sales spread out over 169 companies, 116 of which were small businesses. The bank supported over $1.15 billion in export sales by Triangle area companies. For more information about businesses in your area that have benefited from Ex-Im Bank programs, please click here.
Hagan recently joined several of her colleagues on the Small Business Committee in sending a letter to Senate Leadership requesting that authorization move forward as soon as possible. To read that letter, please click here.
“Under U.S. global trade agreements, our industry is subject to intense competition with a number of foreign government sponsored companies with special financing to create jobs. The U.S. Export-Import Bank has leveled the playing field with regard to export sales competition with government-sponsored enterprises. This translates to real increases in business and real increases in jobs in the U.S.,” said John Bakane, CEO of Frontier Spinning Mills in Sanford, which has received support from the Ex-Im Bank.
The Export-Import Bank Reauthorization of 2012 would raise the bank’s lending cap from $100 billion to $140 billion to facilitate export financing through 2015. The bill also strengthens transparency measurements and requires the bank to provide notice and details to Congress, the public and customers, before and after the approval of transactions over $100 million. Additionally, the bill strengthens restrictions against entities doing business with Iran.
In a significant victory for North Carolina, Hagan successfully included a provision in the Reauthorization to amend the membership of the Bank’s Advisory Committee to include a representative from the textile industry. Hagan’s provision ensures that the textile industry has full representation at Ex-Im. To maintain accountability, Hagan’s provision also requires the Bank to conduct an annual analysis of the Bank’s efforts to provide financing to textile and apparel industries.
“The textile industry has a rich history in North Carolina where we have more than 1,500 textile facilities employing over 130,000 North Carolinians. I insisted on a seat at the table for our textile producers, and their inclusion in this bill makes it an even more urgent priority for me,” said Hagan.
“National Council of Textile Organizations applauds U.S. Senator Kay Hagan's leadership in opening up business opportunities for U.S. textile producers by securing a position on the Ex-Im Bank's Advisory Committee for a textile industry representative. This appointment will complement the apparel industry representative already serving on the committee and will allow for sound supply chain financing policies to be recommended and developed by the Bank and utilized by U.S. manufacturers,” said Cass Johnson, National Council of Textile Organizations President.
Hagan and Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President, Fred P. Hochberg, have convened two Ex-Im Bank Global Access Forums for Small Business in Charlotte and Greensboro. Both forums featured industry, academic and government experts providing North Carolina businesses with practical advice on how to gain a competitive edge in today's global marketplace when selling their goods and services overseas. Over 400 North Carolina small business owners attended the forums to learn more about growing their export business.
The Export-Import Bank’s Global Access for Small Business initiative is currently underway, and it is aimed at increasing the number of small businesses across the United States that export goods and services produced by U.S. workers. This is an integral part of the President's National Export Initiative (NEI), led by the Commerce Department, to double U.S. exports by 2015.
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