Maxine Waters

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that we are considering H.R. 4634 to reauthorize the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, or TRIA, for 7 years. This is a bipartisan bill that passed unanimously out of our committee. I would like to thank Chairwoman Maloney, Chairman Clay, and Chairman Cleaver for their efforts to bring this bill to the floor today. I would also like to thank Ranking Member McHenry for working with me to ensure the availability of affordable terrorism risk insurance coverage across our country for small businesses, nonprofit organizations, hospitals, and educational institutions to name just a few of the entities that rely on this Federal program. The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act was enacted in the aftermath of the tragic September 11 terrorist attacks, which resulted in the largest insured losses on record from a nonnatural event. Insurance and reinsurance companies reeled from the losses, and terrorism risk insurance became unavailable or extremely expensive, complicating the recovery efforts due to the importance of insurance in many business transactions. Congress passed TRIA to ensure that the terrorism risk insurance coverage would remain available and affordable, and since that time, the program has been effective at doing just that. Treasury data show the program has been successful with nearly 80 percent of all TRIA- eligible policies, including terrorism risk coverage, and policyholders paying an average of only 2.5 percent of their total premiums for terrorism risk coverage. Treasury data also demonstrates that TRIA is important across America and not just in densely populated urban areas. In fact, the take-up rate is higher in the Midwest than it is in the northeast. This bill is supported by a broad coalition of over 300 organizations, including the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, the Reinsurance Association of America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the American Bankers Association. I understand that the Senate Banking Committee is considering identical legislation this week, and I hope that we can act quickly to get this bill signed into law. I would urge all my colleagues to support this important legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, to the Members, I cannot express how pleased I am at the effort that was put together by Mr. McHenry to make this a bipartisan bill. I am very appreciative of that. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney), the chairwoman for the Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks), the chair of our Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions Subcommittee.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, and to the Members, we heard Mr. Meeks a moment ago, and we heard from Mrs. Maloney. I can't tell everyone how much time and effort they have put into making sure that we get TRIA reauthorized. What is interesting about what happened in our committee, aside from the fact that Mr. McHenry and I worked well together, we had the East and the Midwest working very well together. We had roundtables by Mr. Meeks and Mrs. Maloney in New York, and then in Missouri, we had Mr. Cleaver and Mr. Clay working together. This has been a wonderful opportunity for all of us to work together to see to it that we do the right thing as it relates to responding to the possibility of terrorism and how we handle that. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Clay), the chair of the Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased and so proud that we are on the floor today on a bipartisan bill, and I certainly expect the support from both sides of the aisle. America stands united against terrorism and the hatred and violence that it represents, and we are stronger as a country when we take steps to ensure that our country can quickly respond to terrorism. By reauthorizing TRIA, we are helping to do just that. Again, I thank Ranking Member McHenry for working with me on this important bill, as well as all of the members on the committee who have shown real leadership on this issue. We heard from some of them today, particularly Representative Maloney, who has worked for a long time on this legislation. This was so important to her. Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Clay, and Mr. Meeks have contributed mightily to the organizing of this bill, to work on any difficulties that we may have had, and I am very pleased about that. Once again, I must say to Mr. McHenry, we have shown that it is possible. Despite the fact that we may not agree on a lot of other things, we came together on this legislation. We agreed, we worked together, and we provided leadership and inspiration to others, understanding that this was possible. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important piece of legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for offering this thoughtful amendment. This amendment strengthens the bill's emphasis on small business. While we have a lot in this bill for small businesses, the gentlewoman's amendment further strengthens these efforts by requiring that the agency emphasize outreach to small businesses in sectors that have been impacted by retaliatory tariffs. Mr. Chairman, I strongly support the gentlewoman's amendment to further help small businesses that have been caught up in this tariff war.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for offering this thoughtful amendment. This amendment prohibits the Bank from providing financing to a person involved in sanctionable activity relating to human rights abuses, specifically human trafficking, including sex trafficking. I strongly support the gentlewoman's amendment to strengthen this bill with respect to combating human trafficking, including sex trafficking, and, of course, I urge all of my colleagues to do so. This makes our bill stronger. This is the most important piece of legislation, and the Export-Import Bank is significant in the fact that it has provided 1.5 million jobs over the past 10 years, supported businesses to the tune of $255 billion, and made money for our Treasury to the tune of about $3.4 million. Every amendment that has come before us today has made this a stronger and stronger piece of legislation.

Ms. WATERS. I am sorry that the gentleman from North Carolina is still bemoaning the fact that the first bill that we negotiated is not before us.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 4863 and to insert extraneous materials thereon.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4863, the United States Export Finance Agency Act of 2019. H.R. 4863 reauthorizes and makes key improvements to the job-creating Export-Import Bank. Let me begin by describing why the Ex-Im Bank is so important. The Ex-Im Bank was established 85 years ago and is the official export credit agency of the United States. Its mission is to promote the export of U.S. goods and services in order to help create and sustain jobs in the United States. Over the last 10 years, the Ex-Im Bank has supported more than 1.5 million American jobs at no cost to the taxpayer, financed more than $255 billion in U.S. exports, and remitted more than $3.4 billion in deficit-reducing receipts to the Treasury. In my district, the Ex-Im Bank is currently financing $269 million worth of exports from 13 different exporters, including 10 small businesses. Ex-Im does not compete with the private sector but, instead, fills in gaps when the private sector lacks the capacity or willingness to provide the financing required by U.S. exporters. During the financial crisis, the Ex-Im Bank was an important source of financing when private capital was simply unavailable to many businesses. Ex-Im estimates that during fiscal year 2010, in the depths of the financial crisis, it supported 227,000 jobs at more than 3,300 companies. The Bank also plays a key role in leveling the international playing field by offsetting the financing offered by foreign export credit agencies. The Ex-Im Bank is one of more than 100 export credit agencies around the world that help their home-country exporters compete in the global markets. If we fail to reauthorize the Bank, American businesses will be harmed, and thousands of jobs will be lost. Unfortunately, in 2015, the Republican leadership in the House allowed the Bank's charter to expire for the first time in the Bank's history. At that time, a number of countries, including China, celebrated the Bank's closure because of the competitive advantage it gave them over U.S. businesses and workers. Later, Republicans in the Senate hobbled Ex-Im for 4 years by refusing to confirm board directors, which prevented them from having a quorum. Ex-Im reported that it was unable to approve $40 billion worth of transactions during this period, which would have supported an estimated 250,000 jobs. H.R. 4863 is intended to renew the confidence of U.S. exporters in the Ex-Im Bank while also sending a message to the world that the U.S. is ready and is prepared to aggressively compete in overseas export markets. H.R. 4863 reauthorizes the Ex-Im Bank for 10 years and increases the Bank's lending authority from $135 billion to $175 billion. The bill strengthens support for small businesses, which are the engine of growth in our economy, and it creates an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion as well as an Office of Territorial Exporting to support exporters in Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other U.S. territories. The bill also focuses the Bank's attention on protecting the environment by creating an office for renewable energy exports, strengthening the Bank's environmental policies and procedures, and encouraging greater accountability with respect to local communities that could be negatively affected by Bank-supported projects. Importantly, H.R. 4863 also includes procedures to avoid a lapse in the Board's quorum so that the Bank can maintain its full operational capacity even when the Senate is unable to confirm Board directors. The bill includes a number of provisions to ensure that Ex-Im financing does not inadvertently support bad actors. For example, the bill prohibits financing for the Chinese military, the Chinese intelligence services, and any other bad actors, including anyone who has criminally violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or has violated U.S. intellectual property laws. Moreover, H.R. 4863 would require the parties to an Ex-Im transaction to certify that neither they nor any of their subsidiaries engage in activities in violation of U.S.-sanctioned laws. So, Mr. Chairman, it is imperative that we reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank so that our businesses, U.S. businesses large and small, will have the financing support they need to compete in the global markets while preserving and creating American jobs at home. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to remind this body that Mr. McHenry is one of the ones responsible for the nonreauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank before. He didn't support it then, and he doesn't support it now, and he never will because he is opposed to Ex-Im Bank reauthorization, period. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Heck), a key sponsor of this legislation and a major supporter of Ex- Im.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I would like to remind the House that the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Huizenga) has 16 total exporters in his district, would support a value of $52 million. I would hope that as he opposes this bill, he is reminded that between 2014 and 2020, his district received substantial support. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), a strong supporter of the Bank and the chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Financial Services.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I would like to again remind Mr. Barr that between 2014 and 2020, his State received $10 million in total export value. I would also like to remind this body that he did not support reauthorization in the past. He does not do it now. I don't know if there will ever be a good enough bill to have him and the ranking member support Export-Import. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Garcia).

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, this is another Member on the opposite side of the aisle, the gentleman from Arkansas, who, when we were trying to get the Bank up and running, he voted against reauthorization. He is voting against it again today. I don't know what it would take to make these Members who have consistently opposed reauthorization to ever support Ex-Im. I would like to remind him there are 10 exporters in his district for a total of $43 million--that is a total value of export--between 2014 and 2020. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stanton).

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I am pleased that the gentleman from Arizona just talked about the kind of support he has in his district. Let me remind the House that we have support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Aerospace Industries Association, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, National Association of Manufacturers, Boeing, and Air Tractor, Inc. What you have here is business and labor have come together to support this most important bill. Mr. Chair, I include in the Record letters of support. Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, Washington, DC, October 28, 2019. Hon. Maxine Waters, Chairwoman, Committee on Financial Services, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Patrick McHenry, Ranking Member, Committee on Financial Services, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Dear Chairwoman Waters and Ranking Member McHenry: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce thanks the committee for considering legislation to provide for long-term reauthorizations of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (``TRIA'') program and the Export-Import Bank of the United States (``Ex-Im''). The Chamber strongly supports the substitute amendment to H.R. 4634, the ``Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2019.'' The Chamber also strongly supports the ``United States Export Finance Agency Act of 2019,'' and opposes all amendments that are intended to serve as ``poison pills'' which would prevent this legislation from viable consideration on the House floor or in the Senate. H.R. 4634, the ``Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2019'' Since its initial enactment in 2002, TRlA has served as a vital public-private risk sharing mechanism, ensuring that private terrorism risk insurance coverage remains commercially available and that the U.S. economy would more swiftly recover in the event of a terrorist attack. The Chamber strongly supports the substitute amendment to H.R. 4634, the ``Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2019,'' and applauds the leadership of Chairwoman Waters and Ranking Member McHenry in reaching this bipartisan deal which would provide a seven-year reauthorization of this important program while providing for a study on the evolving risks in cyberterrorism and the affordability and availability of TRIA coverage for places of worship. The ``United States Export Finance Agency Act of 2019'' As the official U.S. export credit agency (``ECA''), Ex- lm's mission is to support domestic jobs by facilitating the export of goods or services when private sector lenders are unable or unwilling to provide financing. Foreign governments have established 113 ECAs of their own around the world. In 2018, China's two ECAs alone provided 130 times as much medium- and long-term export credit support as the Ex-Im Bank. Due to the extensive competition in this space, it is vital that Ex-Im be reauthorized to ensure that U.S. businesses and workers are not deprived of a basic tool enjoyed by their competitors in every other country. The Chamber strongly supports the ``United States Export Finance Agency Act of 2019.'' This legislation builds off of S. 2293, the ``Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2019,'' which was introduced earlier this year with the bipartisan support of Senators Kevin Cramer and Kyrsten Sinema, and cosponsored by Senators Thom Tillis, Maria Cantwell, Roy Blunt, Patty Murray, Lindsey Graham, Chris Coons, Susan Collins and Maggie Hassan. This legislation would provide exporters with 10 years of much-needed certainty. In May, the Senate confirmed three of Ex-Im's board members, establishing a quorum for the first time since 2015 and finally making the Bank fully functional after several years of being limited to only supporting transactions less than $10 million. This bill would also establish an alternative procedure during any future lapses in the board's quorum to ensure that Ex-Im can continue to serve its vital role in supporting U.S. jobs. U.S. exporters and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that they support need long-term certainty--simply extending the life of Ex-Im through short-term continuing resolutions is not enough. The Chamber strongly urges members of the Committee to vote in support of this long-term legislation and urges members to oppose the adoption of any ``poison pill'' amendments that are intended to prevent this legislation from viable consideration on the House floor or in the U.S. Senate. The Chamber thanks you for your attention on these important issues and looks forward to working with you to ensure long-term reauthorizations of both of these important programs. Sincerely, Neil L. Bradley, Executive Vice President & Chief Policy Officer.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Dean).

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, it is my pleasure to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished majority leader and a longtime supporter of Ex-Im.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the majority leader, to respond to anything he would like to respond to.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I yield an additional 1 minute to the majority leader.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Heck).