WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp introduced bipartisan, compromise legislation to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, which provides critical support small businesses in North Dakota and across the country need to export their products around the world and grow their businesses.

As a member of both the Senate Banking and Small Business Committees and the Ranking Member on the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, International Trade and Finance, Heitkamp has continually reinforced to lawmakers the ways in which the Export-Import Bank supports small businesses and local economies nationwide, including in North Dakota. According to statistics from the Export-Import Bank, almost 90 percent of the agency’s transactions directly supported small businesses. Since 2007, the agency has supported $100 million in exports from North Dakota, boosting local communities state and nationwide while helping small businesses grow, expand, and hire more American workers. Since 2010 alone, the Bank supported $53 million in sales from North Dakota companies.

The bill, which reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank through September 30, 2019, would increase the agency’s required lending to small businesses to 25 percent of its portfolio, up from the bank’s current 20 percent requirement.

“If we in Congress are committed to supporting small businesses, we must reauthorize this agency that supports close to 6,000 small businesses around this country, including many in North Dakota – period,” said Heitkamp. “For years, we have unnecessarily jumped from deadline to deadline, using the Export-Import Bank as a political bargaining chip instead of rewarding its proven track record of supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs across this country with a default rate that’s almost negligible at less than one fifth of a percent. North Dakota businesses produce some of the best products in the world, and the Bank helps them sell more of their products abroad, grow jobs, and expand their businesses – that’s good for everyone. Small businesses in North Dakota and across this country who work hard are counting on Congress to work together to get this done, and it’s past time for us to do our part.”

Last March, Heitkamp hosted Fred Hochberg, Chairman and President of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, at a forum in North Dakota to discuss export opportunities with businesses in the state and explain how the Export-Import Bank can help support such efforts. Heitkamp also brought Hochberg to Case New Holland’s Fargo plant to learn about how the company has grown because of the help of the Export-Import Bank. In September, Heitkamp supported a short-term reauthorization of the bank as part of a bill to keep the government operating.

The Export-Import Bank, the authorization of which is set to expire at the end of June, is an independent federal government agency and the official export credit agency of the United States. The agency has supported more than 9,000 companies exporting products from across the country since 2007, including more than 5,800 small businesses.

North Dakota is a major exporter, and the 9th largest agriculture exporting state in the country. Amity Technology, one of North Dakota’s top exporters, is an industry-leading firm specializing in agricultural machinery. Since just 2012, the Export-Import Bank has helped support more than $8 million in export sales at Amity.

Other examples of North Dakota firms’ sales that are supported by Export-Import Bank financing include: Crary Industries and Titan Machinery in West Fargo, Gussiaas Family Farm in Carrington, Kringstad Ironworks in Park River, Puretec International in Valley City, and WCCO Belting in Wahpeton – all of which have increased exports sales abroad, as well as their sales, as a result of working with the Bank.

Since its creation 1934, the Export-Import Bank has been reauthorized more than two-dozen times. In fact, the Bank actually generates money and helps lower the deficit and support jobs – paying more than $1 billion to the U.S. Treasury in 2013 alone, and supporting 164,000 jobs in 2014 alone.

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