the ex-im bank has been around for decades. ronald reagan was for the ex-im bank. the ex-im bank is directly responsible for helping sell boeing aircraft made in south carolina. 70% of the production in south carolina is eligible for ex-im financing. and there are thousands of small businesses who benefit from manufactured products sold in the developing world through ex-im financing. would i like to live in a world where there were no ex-im banks? sure. but the world i'm not going to live in is where we shut ours down and china keeps theirs open. i'm not doing that. that's not trade. that's just idiotic. that's just unilateral surrender. come to south carolina, tell the people at boeing and all their suppliers and go to greenville to the g.e. plant that hires thousands of south carolinians and all of their small business suppliers, why it's a good idea for america to shut down a bank that makes money for the taxpayer that allows us to be competitive. how you think that's a good way to grow our economy. tell those people who have got good jobs in south carolina who

ex-im is one of those tools. trade promotion authority and trade agreements such as the transpacific partnership are another. we cannot turn our back on american workers. we have a responsibility as a nation to break down every barrier we can so our businesses can reach the global middle class. because every sale an american firm loses out on means that good paying jobs aren't going to texas, california or chippewa falls. instead, they're slipping thousands of miles away. at ex/im our role is to supportexporters but at our core we're about u.s. jobs. these are private sector jobs, the fruit of free enterprise, evidence of america's ability to compete in the global marketplace. we measure our success not just by the numbers of jobs but by the families made stronger by each of them. how will america keep writing those stories notice coming age. we've talked about the exploration ahead of us. we know that export jobs pay up to 18% more making that progress real for more american families. and we also know that as de

this ex-im bank sustained 160,000 export related jobs just last year. created and sustained 1.3 private sector jobs since 2009. and with no cost to the taxpayer. and yet they have said it is corporate welfare and they are not going to pass the ex-im bank. hopefully whatever's happening on the floor of the senate now will come up with a compromise and initiative to send a bill forward. again, while we are givingway all these tax breaks and all the rest we cannot have a highway bill unless you can come up with a pay fors for it. $182 billion unpaid for their r&d, $267 billion to 5,400 families unpaid for. and now they are saying well, we can't have a highway and transit trust fund unless we can find the payfors. and while the -- they took over the house since 2011, the ways and means committee has not had a single hearing on financing. the highway trust fund. the highway bill. not one single hearing. again, we need bigger paychecks, better infrastructure for every hardworking family. so monday is memorial day. we remember what has been given up to protect

we've got deals that are pending with our small businesses through the ex-im bank. they're going to be entirely upended. so i took the majority leader at his word. i thought we were going to have votes to put the enforcement inside this bill, and now that doesn't appear to be happening. and let me just tell you the amendment, mr. president i want to offer. i think it would pass here overwhelmingly. i have no illusions that will allow us to vote on it. but it simply says if you don't pay a minimum wage of two bucks an hour, you can't be in this partnership. let me reiterate. the amendment simply says that you can't be in this trade group if you don't pay more than $2 an hour or at least $2 an hour. now, let's talk about it. why is this important? i voted for fast-track for nafta. what a mistake that was. mr. president, president clinton promised us the world. republicans and democrats who were pro trade promised us the world. do you know what happened? we lost 700,000 jobs, mostly in manufacturing. what makes you think that we're not going to see these 12 million man

in fiscal 2014 alone, ex-im bank supported 107 million in nebraska -- dollars in nebraska exports. as the bank looks to extend its charter until 2022, the chairman graciously accepted my invitation to come to omaha where he recently sat down with several of the nebraska firms which work hand in hand with the ex-im bank. i also wish to express my support for the many nebraska firms who work with the bank. among these is chief industries of carney nebraska, which manufacturers grains storage systems and employs 245 hull-time workers. for the last 15 -- full-time workers. for the last 15 years, they've increased its export sales by 1,000%. that's right, 1,000%. it's this kind of success story which makes clear the significant contribution which the ex-im bank makes to our nation's economy. among these contributions the 1.3 million american jobs the bank has helped create since 2009 while reducing the federal deficit alone by $7 billion over the last 20 years. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognit

so i urge my colleagues to support the small business amendment i hope we can reauthorize the ex-im bank so we can access that funding and get into those international markets. the second amendment i'd like to discuss is an amendment senator mccain who is on the floor and i have filed to repeal a harmful job-killing program the usda catfish inspection program. this is something senator mccain has been been working on for years i've joined him in recent years to try and address the concerns i've heard from companies in new hampshire who are going to be affected by that new usda catfish inspection program. back in 2008, a provision was added to the farm bill that transferred the inspection of catfish -- only catfish -- from the f.d.a., which inexpects all foreign and domestic fish products, to the u.s. department of agriculture. and it required usda to set up a new separate program to inspect just catfish alone. i think this is a us wasteful, duplicative program that will hurt seafood processing businesses across the country. there's no scientific or food safety benefit here, in fact, offi

gentleman from colorado speak, we heard about immigration minimum wage, lgbt, renewable energy highways, ex-im bank and a little bit about fish. s that bill about fish. it's not about all that stuff. you know, we've heard from our friends on the other side of the aisle that we in the majority are using too many, quote, combined rules, where you have more than one bill in the rule. which they say confuses debate and distracts pr the individual merits of each bill and the process by which it will be considered. i've got to tell you, it seems to me we had a lot of confusion and distraction with the interjection into this debate of a bunch of issues that have nothing to do with fishing. today we have one rule, covering one bill, yet the gentleman just spent the majority of his time discussing issues not covered in the rule before us. let me tell you, the people in my area are suffering. charter boat people have lost their boats. dads who want to take their children fishing can't take their children fishing. it's destroying a way of life for people. i'm not saying those other issues aren't importan

i urge my colleagues to re-authorize the ex-im bank. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from connecticut seek recognition? without, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. esty: thank you, mr. speaker. there are only five legislative days until the highway trust fund expires. once again this house is governing by crisis and needlessly endangering 660,000 good paying jobs. this needs to stop. the american society of civil engineers gives america's infrastructure an overall grade of d minus. 35% of my state of connecticut's bridges are structurally deficient, functionally obsolete, or both. we shouldn't wait until the trains derail, the bridges collapse, or projects shut down before we fund our infrastructure in this nation. a great nation does not respond to crisis with duct tape. a great nation leads by bold action. i he join democrats and republicans -- i join democrats and republicans who are ready to work together to pass a long-term sustainable robust highway and infra

i realize, for instance, things like the ex-im bank are very important to various people around our country based on manufacturing operations that happen to be in their states and i respect that. i so appreciate yesterday that we were able to move beyond an issue that was holding us up and get to a place where we're going to be able to vote on some final amendments and hopefully move trade promotion authority into fruition. i know we've talked a lot about these parochial issues, and i want to move back to those in just one moment. but i want to talk about the importance of trade promotion authority and an agreement that i hope will come to fruition after we pass this, which is t.p.p. madam president, i know that many in our country especially right now as we see things on our television screen and in newspapers about unrest that's taking place around the world we've been concerned about our foreign policy. we've been concerned about the effectiveness of what we've been doing. one of the areas that our committee focused on this last week was much of what's happening in the south and east chi

support her that until we know that there's a path forward and we do not expire the charter for the ex-im bank that we don't play chicken with our economy and with our exports until we know that there is a path forward. then how can we really say we're pro-trade? how can we really stand on the floor here as we're discussing trade and trade implications of t.p.a. and t.p.p. and all of the initials ttip, isds, all of the things that people might be listening to say what are they talking about? well these are important tools and important apparatus and they represent a huge part of what we need to do when 95% of all consumers live outside this country. but we need top do it in a way that recognizes that american workers are part of this structure and that we have to have the tools that other countries utilize in order to make sure that we are moving forward. so i want to give my great public thanks to senator cantwell for her brave fight and know that as the chief democratic sponsor of the bill that we're promoting that i stand with her. i stand with her today. i also want to talk today abou

and in fact, the ex-im bank actually has a lower lower default rate than commercial loans and returns money to the treasury returns money to the treasury. so i wish the question was for every federal program and every agency in washington, if the question were for me what the ex-im question is, it creates american jobs and returns money to the treasury to help pay down our debt, if that were the question with every federal agency, that would be a lot easier question, wouldn't it be, and we would probably be a lot farther along to dealing with our $18 trillion in debt. so to me this is one that allows us to create more new hampshire jobs more american jobs. we've got to get this done. i'm glad that we have a commitment to have a vote on it in this body to allow us to reauthorize it before it expires, and again returning money to the treasury and creating american jobs. imagine if we could say that about every federal program. i would also like to talk today about another issue that is very important to jobs in new hampshire, and that's trade promotion authority which is pending on the