ms. klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i rise to speak today in support of reauthorizing the export-import bank. and i'm here with the senator from washington, senator cantwell, who's been such a leader as head of the small business committee, on this issue. and as i heard the senator from maryland talk about the importance of student loans to our economy and the importance to our economy for having people able to go out there and get the education to fill the jobs of today, another piece of this is is to make sure those markets are available, to make sure that our businesses are able to compete internationally, both small and big, with companies from across the world. this means jobs in america. exports are critical to the u.s. economy. and we need to help our businesses, small and large, boost their exports. when 95% of the world's customers live outside of our borders, there is literally a world of opportunity out there for u.s. business. it used to be we were just focused on canada, especially in minnesota,

ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i rise today to speak about the importance of closing the pay gap for women, and i thank my colleague from california, senator boxer, who has been working on this issue on the front line for so long, was a leader on the lily bed led -- lilly ledbetter act and is a leader again. i'm is a cosponsor of this bill and i urge my colleagues to join me in support of the paycheck fairness act. people deserve a fair shot at the american dream. people deserve a working wage. that's why we need to raise the minimum wage and equal work should get equal pay. that's why we need to pass the paycheck fairness act. i'd like to thank the dean of the senate women, senator barbara mikulski for leading this effort for equal pay for equal work from the passage of the lilly ledbetter fair pay act to keeping the focus on the need to pass the paycheck fairness act. in 2009, we passed the lilly ledbetter fair pay act to make sure workers who pace pay discrimination based have access to the courts. th