This is an hour and 20 minutes. Today, the committee turns its focus to the export, import men come the United States. Kimberly reed was elected chairman along with judith prior. The nominations of the Board Members have been approved by this committee and are pending on the full senate floor. The United States exporters are able to compete very effectively in International Markets on the basis of price and quality. However, when aggressive foreign governments provide subsidies as a matter of policy or practice to their exporters, u. S. Exporters are placed at a competitive disadvantage purely because of such financing arrangements. ,ccording to the 2017 xm Bank Competitiveness report, chinese export credit agencies provided a more medium and longterm investment support than the rest of the world combined. As President Trump and other senior officials in his administration have noted, a fully functioning exportthanks the import bank has ability to provide financing and level the Playing Field in response to governments like china. Which can provide almost limitless subsidies from its treasury and place the u. S. Exporters at a disadvantage. Director of the National EconomicCouncil Larry Kudlow xm bank noted that the is vitally necessary in the current trade environment in order for the United States to compete. And succeed in International Markets. Calling it a financial tool and a National Security weapon. During her confirmation process, chairman reid committed to focusing on strong standards of conduct, increased transparency, sound Risk Management practices and eliminating waste and fraud and abuse at the bank. Now that she has been confirmed, i look forward to hearing about the work she is doing and which still needs to be done to process the backlog of pending export deals and how the reforms that congress initiated in the 2015 reauthorization are being implemented. Implement it. In addition in addition, we will begin the debate about what changes if any should be included in the reauthorization for the xm bank charter, which is set to expire at the end of september. We have been seeking feedback from stakeholders, our colleagues in the administration as part of the reauthorization process. In the 2006 reauthorization, i worked on a number of provision to make sure Small Business communities have advocates to address their needs and concerns. However, the bank historically has had trouble meeting its 20 Small Business mandate in terms of authorizations as opposed to the sheer numbers of transactions. I look forward to discussing what changes should be considered to promote small and mediumsize businesses while continuing to ensure any risk to american taxpayers is minimized. Despite only being on the job a short time, chairman reed perspective is very valuable for this process and will be a critical partner throughout reauthorization. Senator brown. Thank you, mr. Chairman for calling this hearing. I am so glad youre here for whole lot of reasons. I want to think the chairman for his work to advance the board nominees. Weve restored the xm for quorum xms board quorum, which they need to consider the nominations and provide their expertise as the bank continues for operations. We will hear from the banks and banks new president kimberly reed, has been at work seven weeks. She is hit the ground, i dont so she has hit the ground sprinting. Thank you for that traveling the world promoting u. S. Economic interest. Im grateful the Senate Confirmed last month every single democrat in the senate voted for you. I can see the gratitude as each of us arrived and you walked here. I thank you for that. She was confirmed 7917. Brown cannot be here today for the hearing but for his support on all that he has done on reauthorizing and getting the nominees through. He is overwhelming and both make it clear. We are strong bipartisan support for helping american businesses and workers compete. Look around the world, there are now 109 export credit agencies that supportograms foreign nonu. S. Manufacturers and every other nation has been aggressively helping their Companies Win sales and the jobs that come with them. Jobs that could be in the United States if xm had been functioning the past four years and it was not functioning because of this president and this Vice President and this republican majority not wanting to move forward. China has multiple expert credit export credit agencies in a 2017 chinas two official credit agencies provided one third of the worlds medium and longterm export credit. Chinese export Credit Agency activities are key to their plans for chinese infrastructure throughout asia, africa and roade under their belt and initiative. Senators or anyone else who travels in any of those continents see the chinese presence. Chinese provided more than 500 billion in insurance to build belt and road projects just in the last five or six years. China is far from alone, the term weaponization is used to describe what european nations are doing to make their export credit agencies more aggressive, more flexible and more proactive. If congress is serious about assuring american businesses and competitiveness, we must have a robust export Credit Agency. We all know what happened in congress in 2015 during the last debate on reauthorizing the bank. A small group of components by far right special interest tried to kill the bank altogether and when that didnt work i think his work ono on this, when that did not work, they decided to block all nominees in all transactions greater the 10 million. That had real consequences for businesses and workers, the amount of jobs that have supported drought for 164,234,000. 164,000 tofrom 34,000 while the bank was hobbled. I had to dozens of Ohio Companies, the Large Companies they were supply change companies, many id never heard of. Dozens of Ohio Companies come to me representing thousands and thousands of jobs that cannot deliver because of the inability to pass this. The obstruction hurt ohio manufacturers. Ohio Companies Exported 400 million in credits and products using xm credit assistance. That amount has been cut in half. Reed, the work you have to do to make up for that. We need to provide the bank a reauthorization of seven years or longer if the house is done. American exporters, critically Small Businesses need a reliable partner. Cannots in when insurers the greatest pain will be felt not by boeing in the big guys but Small Businesses including the Small Businesses that form the supply chain for the larger companies. Last year, xm initiated 2. 2 billion of authorization that supports Small Businesses, 315 Small Business exporters Small Business products for the first time. Congress must increase the Bank Authorization limit or exposure cap which is currently set at 135 billion. Xm must be ready to assist new transactions. Finally, mr. Chairman, a renewed bank must be dedicated to transparency and accountability, xm has risks with the associated with the transactions, as we see from its extremely low default rate. It must continue to be vigilant in preventing fraud. The bank must also be vigorous in complying with requirements set out for the bank to monitor and mitigate environmental and social impacts of product who receive financing. President reed and the new board have taken a long overdue step of finishing the implementation of the reforms of the 2015 export reauthorization and thank you for that. I look forward, madam president , to hearing about that. If President Trump and republicans in congress are serious about helping american manufacturers after years of obstruction, they need to work with us to authorize the bank before the end of september. I urge my colleagues to visit the businesses in ohio or ortana or rhode island pennsylvania or idaho into the and see the work around the country the xm is doing. We have a choice. Do we care about these businesses . Do we want to promote American Manufacturing in American Workers or do you care more about extreme special interest. The choice is ours. Thank you. Thank you. As i indicated, we are joined today by the honorable kimberly a. Reed, the president and chairman of the Export Import Bank of the United States. I thank you for joining the committee this morning. Reed, you may proceed. Good morning. Thank you for reminding me for testify exactly seven weeks after i was sworn in as president and chairman of the Exportimport Bank of the United States. This is my third time to come before this committee. I have taken our conversations over the past two years to heart. Under my leadership, it is a new day for xm. Im committed to working with you to transform this agency. Let me set the stage by sharing my priorities that i relate to, related to my nearly 400 dedicated xm colleagues on day one. Im committed to fully opening, reforming, reauthorizing xm in providing positive results for American Workers and businesses while protecting taxpayers so we can better compete with countries like china. As i have testified, i am prioritizing Small Business. Since my first day, we have approved 260 Small Business authorizations and that was 49 days ago. We will build on this success, such as with agriculture exports. President trump understands the xm supports his agenda of creating jobs and bringing manufacturing back to the usa. He asked me to fight to give American Workers a level Playing Field and to expand foreign markets for American Made goods. Xm advances u. S. Strategic interest around the world. It is a tool in our economic and National Security toolbox at a time when global competition has never been more intense. Today, xm offers a full range of financing only as a lender of last resort. Xm is self financing because of charges to the international customers. After covering costs, xm has sent 10 billion to the u. S. Treasury since 1992. Xm had a default rate of less than. 5 over the past decade because of the diligence that goes into the review and the structuring of these transactions. With nearly 40 billion in the pipeline and more applications on the way, xm staff estimates 20 billion in transactions will be presented to the board for consideration in our first year of full functionality. We must be responsible and protect taxpayers. Thats why im focused on reform. During my confirmation hearing here, i committed to increase transparency, strengthen taxpayer protection, improve protection for domestic companies, and sure xm does not crowd out financing options, and work to the reliance on expert Credit Agency globally. Export Credit Agency globally. Under my leadership we made progress over the past 4090s. Immediately after being sworn in i went to china for the annual g12 expert Credit Agency meeting. I made clear to my foreign counterparts my commitment to the transparency leveling the Playing Field and reducing the reliance on financing by export agencies globally. As an outcome, i secured support for the United States to host the 2020 g12 here in washington. So we can make our case more directly. We will be in discussions with a lot of allergy 12 colleagues between now and then. Outstanding the reauthorizations and forms, including approving a chief ethics officer. I have begun efforts to increase our Economic Impact procedures. I also value diverse, external feedback and advice. Reestablishing and seeking nominations for our advisory and our Subsaharan Africa advisory committee. This is just a glimpse of all that has been happening. One of the major challenges will be highlighted in the soon to be released competitiveness report which examines how deeply and widely foreign export financing has changed over the past decade. Competition is fierce. There are now, as you will see in the report you will receive tomorrow, 112 export agencies up in other countries, up from 95 when i testified before you in 2017. Today, china is the largest provider of official export credit, providing an estimated 39 billion in medium and longterm financing more than the top three combined virchow credit agencies combined. The administration looks forward to working with this committee and congress to reauthorize xm so the United States is fully able to act as a market oriented counterweight to china and other nations that use export and trade related financing and strategic and predatory ways with longterm consequences to economic and National Security. As i previously testified, the United States will not unilaterally disarm. In closing, i want to thank President Trump for his support. The president told me the world needs to see the products stamped with the four beautiful words made in the usa. They need congress to reauthorize xm bank to make this happen. I look forward to your questions. Thank you very much, chairman reed. As we have already mentioned, we have heard a lot about china and the president , members of the senior team and many in congress about the opportunity to make better use of xm to combat actions by china that are preventing u. S. Businesses to compete on a level Playing Field. The reauthorization of the bank as an opportunity for congress to increase xms role. You discussed some of these aspects and just to further describe how you seend what role you see xm to play us businesses level this Playing Field. Ms. Reed thank you. It has been a very tense 49 days but it has been a great 49 days and i want to thank you for your vote. We have had a lot of discussions internally and a lot of discussions externally. I have spent time with 20 financial institutions, back to back half hour meetings that the where i heard over and over again, the u. S. Is back in business but the paradigm has changed and that paradigm, as we know, includes china. The world is looking for the u. S. To be part of what is happening right now and through reauthorization is the number one key thing we can do to ensure we are having us businesses of all sizes and all kinds our constituents in every single state that benefit from xm to make products and provide services that go everywhere in the world where there is a need. Toolovides a very special in actual backs where there is a gap in financing. We want to see people buying u. S. Products, not only for Economic Security but also National Security. And china is there right now, and i know many of you have traveled all over the world. They are everywhere. We dont want to fall behind anymore so we need to be there. You, and again, you touched on this as well in your full submitted testimony, but during your nomination process, you suggested to this committee your priorities included Greater Transparency and accountability as well as other reforms at the bank. Can you update us on your agenda in this area including which matters you believe you can accomplish without further congressional direction and which agenda Items Congress may need to address with reauthorization before you can proceed . Absolutely. Oversight and reform with other agencies. Sedate number one is chairman what we are doing it is a lot of work to come up to speed quickly but im constantly asking questions internally what more can we be doing to be transparent so the taxpayers are protected quicks we will be reviewing two key provisions the Impact Analysis provisions. We want to ensure that we fill the gap when there is a need and the things that we can do to help these documents that we receive internally so it is a thoughtful process i want to be smart about it but we want to protect the taxpayers so i will be looking for input and also work with you and will be coming back to with more on that but those are the key things. Also want to say with a 113 other credit agencies are doing to be at the Export Import Bank for 49 years and started as the godfather of eta competitiveness report and we are the only country that even looks at what has happened around the world through a report like this. So why we want to be transparent we also dont want to hurt us businesses by revealing information that is proprietary so i look forward to working with you. And her chief risk officer are now confirmed and appointed and we are working with them. Thank you we look forward to your input as we