Speeches

Good afternoon. Thank you, Marion, for that introduction-and thank you all for being here today.

I want to begin by reading a letter from the President.

And I quote: "I have signed H.R. 5548, the Export-Import Bank Act… which extends the Bank's charter for 6 more years. This sends an important signal to both our exporting community and foreign suppliers that American exporters will continue to be able to compete vigorously for business throughout the world…

This authority will give the United States needed leverage for use in negotiations to eliminate predatory financing practices whereby countries mix official export financing with concessional foreign aid in an effort to undercut bids on major overseas projects."

This rather flattering letter is signed by the President of the United States. But when I looked at it carefully, I noticed something interesting about it: it's dated October 15th, 1986. And the president who wrote it is Ronald Reagan.

Just a little food for thought for some of the folks who might be on the fence when it comes to Ex-Im and our role in promoting a pro-growth agenda.

Now, before I say a lot of flattering things about the companies you all represent, I'm going to start by bringing you all back down to Earth.

Because there's a company out there-an American small business-that is outdoing all of you. In fact, they manufacture and sell more airplanes than Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, and Bombardier combined. And they sell their planes all across the globe.

With sales of 25 thousand planes last year, Pacific Miniatures-or PacMin-is a family business located about 10 minutes north of Anaheim, California that produces planes like this one.

You might be familiar with their products. You'll find them in airline and travel offices worldwide. They've also been an Ex-Im customer since 2005, and today more than 35 percent of their sales are exports.

So while you all represent successful businesses, only PacMin can truly be described as a model aerospace company.

But PacMin is also a great example of the breadth of our work at Ex-Im.

As you all know, our mission is to equip American exporters-both the large and the very, very small-with the tools they need to venture out to new frontiers, and to create new jobs here at home.

We fill in the financing gaps when private banks are unable or unwilling to offer adequate support. And by breaking down barriers to financing, we level the playing field for U.S. businesses as they face off against stiff foreign competition.

Of course, if you work in the aerospace sector, you know a thing or two about stiff foreign competition. You face it each and every day.

Our business is making sure that your products-American-made products-have the opportunity to succeed on their merits against that competition. Of course, we're prohibited from supporting military projects. But many of you who work in the defense industry are moving more and more into the commercial aerospace sector.

And we've been standing alongside you for almost as long as that industry has existed. In fact, our earliest aerospace deals date back to the mid-1940s, when we financed the sale of U.S.-built planes to several Latin American countries.

Since that time, as the American aerospace industry has ascended to greater and greater heights, our support has taken off in tandem with your growth. Let me give you a recent example of what that looks like.

A little over two years ago, Ex-Im set an ambitious goal: to provide $1 billion in financing support to producers of American-made business aircraft and helicopters by the end of 2014. And in February-ten months ahead of schedule-I had the opportunity to visit Gulfstream headquarters in Savannah and announce that we had met that goal.

The transaction that put us over the top? It's financing the sale of eight Gulfstream aircraft to a Chinese leasing company. Yes, China is buying American. And from what I heard on my recent tour of Gulfstream, more is on the way-a lot more.

The billion dollars in business aircraft and helicopter financing we've completed since 2012 is a nice number-and it was hard-earned. But at Ex-Im, we don't measure our progress just by the dollar value of the transactions we authorize.

We measure it by the lives changed-and the communities transformed-as a result of the global success of vital U.S. companies.

So the most important thing about that Gulfstream transaction is that it's supporting 2,100 quality American jobs in Savannah-and at suppliers throughout the country. Of course, that's on top of the thousands of other American aerospace jobs that our $1 billion in financing represents.

We've got critics out there who like to derisively refer to us as the 'bank of Boeing.' To that I say: we're the bank of any eligible company that wants to sell more American products and add more American jobs.

We're definitely the bank of small businesses in the heart of hundreds of American communities-including many aerospace suppliers… Places where the benefits of some of our largest deals echo the loudest and longest.

And you know what? We're also the bank of Gulfstream.

They've tripled their international fleet in the last decade, and since 2006 they've added more than 4,000 new jobs in Savannah.

We're the bank of SpaceX. Eight years ago, SpaceX was a small business with big ideas. But once they got the financing support they needed to compete on a level playing field, those innovative ideas turned into realities. And that growth has spawned 4,000 quality American jobs.

We're the bank of Air Tractor, a small business in Olney, Texas. Before partnering with Ex-Im, they exported about ten percent of their crop dusters and firefighting planes-today, it's more than half. And that growth has empowered them to add more than 100 middle class jobs in North Texas. That makes a huge difference in a community of 3,000 people-for a town with two traffic lights and one Dairy Queen, Air Tractor is big business.

And of course, we're the bank of Pacific Miniatures.

We're proud to support an essential American industry-from the tiniest aviation accessories to the most advanced satellites; from the smallest companies to the largest.

And we're prouder still that our aerospace authorizations have supported more than 100,000 quality, lasting jobs in communities across the country-just over the last two years alone.

Let me say that again: 100,000 jobs.

Of course, America's continued success in the aerospace sector will depend on more than just what happens here in America. So I'd like to take just a moment to talk about a couple of the most important global trends coming our way.

First, we're witnessing the emergence of capital markets as a funding source for aerospace transactions. In fact, in the last five years, more than one-third of our long-term aircraft transactions have been done in capital markets. And pretty soon, we'll be looking to capital markets to finance satellite deals as well. So this trend is already well underway.

Why? Basel III and other banking reforms are changing the face of how exports and trade are financed.

The truth is, the banking market has changed over the last five years in ways that nobody could have predicted. The days of banks doing ten- or twelve-year loans-the kind of long-term financing necessary to make many aerospace projects possible-those days are over.

And both the private sector and ECAs are increasingly responding to that new reality by opening up more sources of capital-frequently at reduced costs. As the world continues to adapt, capital markets are only going to grow more and more relevant as a vehicle for long-term financing.

Second, we all know that the landscape is changing-and it's bringing more and more serious challengers into the global arena. China and Japan are building planes to compete. France and Russia have their eyes set on leadin