Export Promotion Reform Act

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4041, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the Export Promotion Reform Act is a bipartisan, noncontroversial bill that will help increase the export of American goods and services, and in the process create new, high-quality jobs. I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Manzullo) for working with me on this legislation. He has been one of the strongest voices for export promotion and export control reform in this Chamber, and he's been a great partner to have on this legislation. I also want to thank my chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros- Lehtinen, and her staff for helping to move this through the legislative process to this point.

H.R. 4041 would implement recommendations by the GAO, the Government Accountability Office, to make more effective use of our export- promotion programs. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill doesn't authorize any new programs, nor does it add any new spending or impose any new mandates.

The bill has been endorsed by a number of prominent business organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Business Roundtable.

The Export Promotion Reform Act would make sound, practical improvements that would benefit many of the

Nation's 293,000 exporting firms, more than 97 percent of which are small and medium-sized businesses, while exercising fiscal prudence on behalf of the American taxpayer.

American firms have renewed opportunities for growth and increased employment through increased sales overseas. However, the competition in world trade is fierce, and our export-promotion programs often don't measure up to those of our competitors. GAO has told us repeatedly that these programs would be more effective with improved coordination. To that end, H.R. 4041 would eliminate duplicative activities and improve service delivery to exporters; require a global plan to identify and target the best growth markets for U.S. goods and services; and require our ambassadors to develop country-by-country commercial diplomacy plans aimed at increasing U.S. exports, while making the effectiveness of their commercial diplomacy efforts part of their annual performance review.

Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that every $1 billion of U.S. exports supports approximately 5,800 jobs here at home. With 95 percent of the world's consumers living overseas, expanding U.S. exports in world markets is one of the best ways for American business to grow and create jobs.

I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

U.S. Congress,

Congressional Budget Office,

Washington, DC, March 19, 2012.

Hon. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of

Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Madam Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has

prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 4041, the Export

Promotion Reform Act.

If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be

pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Sunita

D'Monte.

Sincerely,

Douglas W. Elmendorf.

Enclosure.

H.R. 4041--Export Promotion Reform Act

H.R. 4041 would require the Secretary of Commerce to assess

overseas markets, at least once every five years, to

determine which markets present the greatest opportunities to

increase United States exports. The Secretary would be

required to relocate personnel that promote U.S. trade

opportunities based on the outcome of the assessment. The

bill also would require Chiefs of Missions in foreign

countries to use those assessments in promoting United States

exports.

Based on information from the Department of State and the

International Trade Administration, the agencies that would

administer the bill's provisions, CBO estimates that

implementing H.R. 4041 would have discretionary costs of less

than $500,000 a year, totaling about $1 million over the 2012

2017 period, assuming the availability of appropriated funds.

Enacting H.R. 4041 would not affect direct spending or

revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.

H.R. 4041 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector

mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and

would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.

On January 17, 2012, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for

H.R. 2987, the American Export Promotion and Job Creation

Act, as introduced on September 21, 2011. The language in

that bill is similar to that in H.R. 4041 and the estimated

costs for the two bills are identical.

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Sunita D'Monte.

The estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, Deputy Assistant

Director for Budget Analysis.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4041) to amend the Export Enhancement Act of 1988 to further enhance the promotion of exports of United States goods and services, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend and to submit extraneous materials for the Record.

Mr. Speaker I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this bill has been many years in the making and is the result of several hearings, including one I held as chairman of the House Small Business Committee back in 2006. This is simply a good- government bill that costs nothing.

I recognize that market forces play a predominant role in international trade. However, export promotion programs can play a useful role in helping small and medium-sized enterprises find new markets and customers overseas. Several small companies in northern Illinois expanded their operations and hired new workers after U.S. Commercial Service identified new exporting opportunities.

Also, according to the National District Export Council, every $1 spent on export promotion has resulted in $135 in exports. However, many of our trade-promotion programs are not fully integrated. This has been confirmed in various Government Accountability Office, GAO, and Inspector General reports measuring the effectiveness of the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee, which is known as the TPCC. Congressional intent behind the legislation this committee passed in 1992 has not been fulfilled.

Our trading partners are well organized and effectively market their businesses overseas. I recall on one of my trips to China some years ago, the CEO of a very large Chinese manufacturing company told me he often sees Europeans and Japanese as trade-promotion officials, but he had yet to see Americans doing the same thing. And he asked me the question: Where are the Americans?

According to the National District Export Council, while the U.S. spends about 21 cents per $1,000 of total exports on trade-promotion programs and services, Japan spends 30 cents, France spends 43 cents, and Great Britain spends 75 cents. With small businesses offering the best prospect to boost export growth, we should make every effort that gets the greatest return for any taxpayer money spent on export promotion.

In 2006 and in 2008, I introduced legislation that would reform the TPCC and move its responsibilities into the executive office of the President. I was pleased in 2010 when the President announced the formation of the Export Cabinet and adopted many of the reform ideas contained in my legislation, such as instituting measurable benchmarks for achieving goals set forth in the annual National Export Strategy report.

However, there is one key reform missing from the President's proposal: having an integrated trade budget. Currently, each trade- promotion agency submits its own budget to the Office of Management and Budget and the President on its own without a separate review as to whether or not each request fits within the overall trade agenda for the U.S. Government.

The TPCC needs budget-review authority in order to be fully effective. In 2010, I was proud to join with our former colleague, Representative Gabby Giffords, in introducing legislation to remedy this problem. While the bill did not pass in the previous Congress, I am proud to join with my good friend, Representative Howard Berman, in continuing Ms. Giffords' legacy and support the Export Promotion Reform Act.

While the President issued a subsequent memorandum last February that would give the Export Cabinet and the TPCC the ability to make recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget for more effective use of trade-promotion funds, this bill is needed to codify and clarify this role to guarantee that the TPCC will be able to influence decisions on the President's budget request prior to its submission to Congress.

Process and good-government reforms oftentimes do not get the attention they deserve. However, this bill recognizes their importance. I urge my colleagues to support this bill because it will ultimately benefit small and medium-sized exporters.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4041, the Export Promotion Reform Act, which will revise the duties of the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee (TPCC) to improve the research conducted for export promotion efforts. If enacted, this bill will increase the effectiveness of the steps that are taken by the TPCC to boost international trade. I support the bill because expanding America's share of the export market is critical if we are to compete and win in the global economy of the 21st century and provide jobs that will sustain a middle-class standard of living for our people.

Mr. Speaker, this bill will require the government to take into account the recommendations of small- and medium-sized businesses when developing federal trade promotion efforts. This requirement will enable policymakers to better understand the environment in which they are attempting to promote trade.

A more focused understanding of the current economic environment can help the government create more effective export expansion initiatives. By creating targeted initiatives, the Federal Government can help the U.S. economy by expanding economic opportunity for local business to increase foreign sales, thereby creating more good-paying jobs, and economic growth.

This bill also requires the Secretary of Commerce to conduct global assessments of overseas markets to determine which markets have the greatest export potential, and deploy resources accordingly. This will assist U.S. businesses in identifying profitable market opportunities abroad, making it easier for them to begin exporting goods and services. Additionally, the deployed personnel and other resources will help to limit barriers to entry of foreign markets by U.S. businesses.

I support this bill also because of the strong positive impact that an increase in exports will have on the constituents of the 37th Congressional District of California, which I am privileged to represent. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are major economic engines in the Southern California economy, currently providing nearly $14.5 billion a year in trade-related wages, and more than $47 billion in direct and indirect business sales.

An increase in international exports will boost these figures and create jobs. Additionally, an increase in exports will, provide more opportunities for local businesses to thrive by expanding into foreign markets.

For these reasons, I urge my colleagues to join me in support of H.R. 4041.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Berman/Manzullo bill to reform how we promote exports. This is a great down payment on a whole host of reforms we can make to how the government works with U.S. businesses to create jobs by exporting our goods and services.

We have enormous business opportunities in overseas markets, and we have overwhelming data and analysis that shows that other countries have been doing a better job at promoting their exports and that we can easily do much better.

Today's bill will focus our export promotions activities and reduce obstacles to exporting without spending any more money.

As you may know, Mr. Reichert and I also have a bill with a couple of additional export promotion provisions that also have no cost and are uncontroversial.

Because of a quirk in the tax code we are getting inaccurate data on services exports that could be up to one-third wrong. We need to fix it. We also need to have a better annual report and plan from the TPCC on how the government's overall export work is matching up with the needs of U.S. businesses.

I'd ask the members for their support in continuing to push on this bill, to get it through the Senate, and on other measures too, like what Mr. Reichert and I have put together--costless improvements we can make to improve exports and create jobs.