News

Washington, D.C.: Members of the House Small Business Subcommittee on Tax, Finance and Exports heard testimony today supporting a variety of programs the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) uses to meet its mandate to assist small businesses exporting American goods and services to challenging world markets.

Five years ago, this committee played a critical role in moving Ex-Im Bank to help more small business exporters, Chairman Donald Manzullo (R-IL) said. Congress required that Ex-Im allocate at least 10 percent of its resources to helping small business exporters...[today] they have more than met this goal - over 80 percent of their transactions and 21 percent of their dollar volume is devoted to small business.

Ex-Im Bank President and Chairman James Harmon told subcommittee members that since 1992, Ex-Im Bank has expanded lending programs, export services and outreach efforts, which have combined to make small businesses an important part of Ex-Im Bank`s customers base.

Small businesses will have many exciting opportunities to grow in the future, and for those firms with exportable goods and services, exports, especially to the markets Ex-Im Bank serves, represent great growth potential, Harmon said. Ex-Im Bank believes that it will continue to increase its small business assistance as it fulfills its mission to assist U.S. manufacturers and exporters in markets where we would otherwise lose business.

Exporters and lenders testified that Ex-Im Bank programs help America companies succeed in the global marketplace.

Ex-Im Bank has become increasingly relevant to small exporters...More transactions involving more small companies has led to increased export activities and, to be blunt, more jobs, Warren Fuller, president, Paul O. Abbe Inc. said.

Lon Zeager, president of Mader Dampers, which has doubled its workforce to 24 employees during the last five years through export sales, said, Ex-Im Bank is a quality [federal] program which provides for new job creation and new markets for American businesses.

Ex-Im Bank`s role in helping small U.S. companies remain competitive in the global marketplace is absolutely essential, Brett Silvers, chairman and president, First National Bank of New England said.

Since the Bank was last rechartered in 1992, it has authorized financing to support more than 10,000 transactions, totaling $65.6 billion and impacting more than 2,000 communities nationwide. For every dollar appropriated to the Ex-Im Bank during the last five years, the Bank has returned approximately $20 worth of exports.