Reform Exports and Expand the American Economy Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from
Tennessee for his hard work.

I would remind the previous speaker that this is actually a
Republican-led discharge petition for Ex-Im Bank.

We could have avoided this. None of us celebrate being here right now
as Republicans. But the time to deal with the issue of Ex-Im Bank was
on the committee. Unfortunately, this could have gone through the
committee, this could have been voted on in committee, and it could
have come to the floor in what people would consider a more regular
order way than this. However, that didn't have the opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, my district is the 16th District of Illinois, and I will
tell you what, they are not worried about discharge petitions and
things when people talk about regular order and internal politics and
what is going on here. What they care about is the fact that it is a
heavy manufacturing district, and they want to be able to go to work
tomorrow. They are worried because people live with the threat of pink
slips, and many people actually get pink slips.

Unfortunately, in July, the charter for Ex-Im Bank expired, which put
a lot of the manufacturing suppliers of the aerospace industry at a
disadvantage in my district compared with those that supply to Airbus
and other companies around the world. Pride in our exports and pride in
our manufacturing is something that we should have pride in, and we
should fight beyond what it means for a party label or beyond what it
means for floor politics.

Mr. Speaker, the opponents of reauthorization live in a world where
the politics of purity trumps the realism of today and of the
economics. Here is the reality: in my district, thousands of jobs,
millions of dollars of exports, and many, many people rely on this to
be reauthorized.

Mr. Speaker, I know this is not easy, as Republicans, to do this, but
it is the right thing to do. So I stand and I ask my colleagues on the
Republican and the Democrat side of the aisle to put partisanship
aside, to do the right thing, and to discharge this resolution.

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