California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 37

Introduced by Assembly Member Muratsuchi

February 19, 2014

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 37—Relative to the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AJR 37, as introduced, Muratsuchi. Export-Import Bank of the United States.

This measure would urge Congress to support legislation reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, The Export-Import Bank of the United States
(Ex-Im) is the official export credit agency of the United States
and exists for the purposes of financing and insuring foreign
purchases of United States goods for customers unable or unwilling
to accept the credit risk; and

WHEREAS, The mission of the Ex-Im is to create and sustain
United States jobs by financing sales of United States exports to
international buyers; and

WHEREAS, The Ex-Im is the principal government agency
responsible for aiding the export of American goods and services,
and thereby creating and sustaining United States jobs, through a
variety of loan, guarantee, and insurance programs for small and
large businesses; and

WHEREAS, The Ex-Im has supported more than $400 billion
in United States exports in the past 70 years and helps to cover
critical trade finance gaps by providing loan guarantees, export
credit insurance, and direct loans for United States exports in
developing markets where commercial bank financing is
unavailable or insufficient. In Fiscal Year 2012, Ex-Im financing
of United States exports exceeded $35 billion, assisting more than
3,400 United States companies and supporting approximately
255,000 export-related American jobs; and

WHEREAS, The Ex-Im is a self-sustaining agency, which
operates at no cost to the taxpayer and, between the 2008-09 to
2011-12 fiscal years, inclusive, the Ex-Im has generated $1.6
billion in excess revenue for United States taxpayers; and

WHEREAS, The Ex-Im enables United States companies large
and small to turn export opportunities into sales that help to
maintain and create in the United States jobs and contribute to a
stronger national economy. On average, more than 85 percent of
the Ex-Im’s transactions support United States small businesses;
and

WHEREAS, Exports are particularly important to the California
economy as California is currently ranked second in exports among
all states. If California’s manufacturing base is to grow, we must
continue to expand our ability to export goods from California
facilities. Given the key role the Ex-Im plays in facilitating export
sales, failure to reauthorize it would be devastating to existing
industry and to those that we hope to create in the future; and

WHEREAS, Over the past five years, the Ex-Im has assisted
more than 900 California companies to export their products.
Nearly 200 of those companies are women or minority owned and
668 are small businesses. These companies export their products
and services around the globe totaling more than $19 billion in
sales. Fifty-two of the 53 congressional districts in California had
companies benefit from the Ex-Im loans; and

WHEREAS, A reauthorization of the Ex-Im is critical to the
ability of many United States exporters to compete on a level
playing field in a commercial market where current and future
competitors continue to enjoy aggressive support from their
countries’ export credit agencies; and

WHEREAS, A failure to reauthorize the Ex-Im would amount
to unilateral disarmament in the face of other nations’ aggressive
trade finance programs that favor their domestic companies over
American companies; and

WHEREAS, Economic growth depends on increasing exports
from both small and large manufacturers and service providers in
California and reauthorization means support for California exports
and California jobs; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature urges Congress to support
legislation reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank of the United
States; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the
Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and
Representative from California in the Congress of the United
States.