Reauthorize the Export-Import Bank

Floor Speech

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Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, Congress is engaged in a vigorous debate about national trade policy, but no matter where you stand on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Export-Import Bank is one trade program that we should all get behind.

After all, this is a Federal agency that operates at no cost to taxpayers and whose sole purpose is to create jobs by helping American manufacturers increase exports.

The Export-Import Bank provides loans to help American businesses compete against foreign companies that receive subsidies from their governments, and it provides credit to facilitate the sale of American goods abroad.

Since 2009, the Export-Import Bank has helped dozens of businesses in western New York export nearly $100 million in goods and has helped create or sustain 1.3 million jobs across this Nation.

A number of local business leaders, including Barre Banks, the owner of Midland Machinery in Tonawanda, have reached out to my office to share their stories of success with the Bank and to warn against its expiration.

I urge the majority to stand with American businesses, protect American jobs, and reauthorize the Export-Import Bank.

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