Rep. Rick Larsen, WA-02, called for support of manufacturing and export initiatives in testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Budget. Larsen highlighted the importance of manufacturing and exports in Northwest Washington. The full text of Larsen’s testimony follows:
Chairman, Ranking Member, and members of the Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this morning. As the Committee considers and revises the President’s budget proposal, I urge you to fully support programs that are focused on boosting manufacturing and increasing exports.
We are in such a pivotal and critical point in determining our nation’s manufacturing and economic future. Between June 1979 and December 2009, the US lost 41 percent of its manufacturing jobs. We must turn this decline around by investing in manufacturing and boosting exports, both of which create jobs for Americans.
This Budget is a key vehicle to help turn that around. America’s future is dependent on us getting our investments right in this budget.
President Obama visited the Boeing manufacturing facility in my District last month to highlight several aspects of his Budget that will help grow manufacturing and expand our exports. I fully support the President’s goal to double our exports between 2010 and 2015, and I urge this Committee to support these initiatives.
The President has requested $430 million for the Export-Import Bank, the US Trade and Development Agency, the Office of US Trade Representative, the US International Trade Commission, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and $517 million for the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration.
Expanding the Export-Import Bank’s authority and providing a long-term reauthorization for it will help U.S. firms compete with foreign firms that receive government support. Support of the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center will help ensure that American manufacturers have fair access to foreign markets.
These budget initiatives will have a real and positive impact in all of our communities.
Boosting manufacturing is a key part of rebuilding the middle class by providing a source of good-paying jobs and helping the economy fully recover. In Washington state’s 2nd District in the Pacific Northwest, manufacturing accounts for a huge portion of jobs and job growth. From the people who work at small manufacturers that create specialized pipe fittings and windows and doors, to the huge manufacturer Boeing, the residents of the 2nd District know the importance of still being able to build things here in America.
The best way that we can grow manufacturing is by expanding exports. One in four jobs in my state is tied to foreign exports, and that number has greatly expanded in the last several years. Manufacturers that can get access to the world markets can greatly expand the demand for their products. When manufacturers increase their production, they hire more people.
I work directly with manufacturers in Northwest Washington through an Export Promotion Program that I established. One of the companies I have worked with, a small maker of windows and doors, went from exporting none of their products in 2009, to being on track this year to export $1.2 million to British Columbia, Canada alone. This kind of success can be replicated across the country, but only if we continue to support the expansion of exports and the budget measures that support that expansion.
I urge the Committee to fund those initiatives that support a trade policy that promotes exporting our goods, and not exporting our jobs, overseas.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
