Kaine shares tales of Virginia companies in call to support Ex-Im Bank

It used to be one of the most obscure federal agencies around, but these days, the Export-Import Bank of the United States is a bit of a political flashpoint: a job-generator from one point of view, a piece unnecessary corporate welfare from the other.

Sen. Tim Kaine decided to weigh in on the issue on the Senate floor today as concretely as he could.

Or maybe concrete isn't quite the word. Take a gander:

"Let me tell about four companies, and they're very different companies: rockets, apples, compressors and paper. Sounds like rock, paper scissors thing, right?" he told the Senators.

Not quite. The companies are among the nearly 100 in Virginia that the Ex-Im Bank (as its friends call it) supported since 2007. That support is in the form of loan guarantees and insurance so they could finance about $1 billion a year in exports from the state. Mind you, that's not money the bank shells out. It's just Ex-Im saying it will guarantee payment if the exporter or its bank get stiffed. Less than 0.3 percent of the sums Ex-Im Bank guarantees and insures is ever actually paid out. Ex-Im Bank funds its operations from the fees it charges customers, and has in fact raised $2 billion more than it has paid out.

Kaine's four companies? For rockets, read Orbital Sciences, the Dulles-based firm that launches rockets from Wallops Island. "This commercial business that Orbital has is faced with significant competition from European satellite manufacturers," Kaine said. "Orbital relies on the Export-Import Bank to level the playing field. Those European manufacturers get assistance from their governments." Since 2012, six of the 38 satellites it has built and rocketed off into space was for a foreign customer nailed down with Ex-Im Bank support. Each one employed 300 people at the company and another 300 people at its suppliers.

Apples? Turkey Knob Orchards, up in Timberville. It's a family firm with a growing business in West Africa and India, new booming markets where many lenders are skittish about financing perishable produce. Ex-Im Bank helps Turkey Knob's lenders get a good handle on apple importers' real ability to pay. "Without Ex-Im credit insurance, Turkey Knob would export less," Kaine said. "With the credit insurance program, small exporters are able to build these deals so they can expand business that otherwise wouldn't be possible. We want importers to buy Virginia apples. We think our apples are every bit as good as Washington apples or every other states' apples and we're proud to market them."

Bristol Compressors, in the depressed southwesternmost corner of the state, has a global reach, Kaine said, selling compressors for heat pumps, air conditioners and refrigeration "across six continents. I think Antarctica might be the exception. They have enough air conditioning there." But  Bristol would not be able to service the majority of its business abroad (to say nothing of any ambition to crack polar markets) without the support of the Ex-Im Bank, Kaine said.

Virginia Beach's Eagle Paper has one big advantage in export markets because it is close to the Port of Hampton Roads. But Eagle has said Ex-Im Bank is a crucial part of its business and that without, it could not keep all its customers and would have to cut staff, Kaine said.

"Not often do we have such no-brainers present themselves on the floor," Kaine said, calling for the Senate to reauthorize the agency.

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