EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES + + + + + ADVISORY COMMITTEE + + + + + MEETING + + + + + THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 + + + + + The Advisory Committee convened via Video Teleconference at 2:00 p.m. EDT, Heidi Heitkamp, Advisory Committee Chair, presiding. BOARD MEMBERS JAMES BURROWS, Acting President and Chair JIM CRUSE, Acting First Vice President and Vice Chair SPENCER BACHUS, III, Member ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERS HEIDI HEITKAMP, Chair NAVA AKKINENI BARBARA BUCHNER EUGENE CORNELIUS PHILIPPE DELLEVILLE BOB DREISEWERD RODNEY FERGUSON SALLY GILLIGAN DENNY HECK WEI-SHIN LAI KATHIE LEONARD DANIEL PINHO T.J. RAGUSO VENKEE SHARMA DAVID WHITE STAFF PRESENT HAZEEN ASHBY, Senior Vice President, Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs and White House Liaison MADOLYN PHILLIPS, Acting Chief Banking Officer CASSIE ROWLANDS, Senior Analyst, Office of Policy Analysis and International Relations LISA TERRY, Senior Vice President and Chief Ethics Officer CHRIS VAN ES, Senior Vice President, Office of Communications and External Engagement INDIA WALKER CONTENTS Opening Remarks The Honorable Heidi Heitkamp, Chair, EXIM Advisory Committee 4 Board of Directors Welcome James G. Burrows, Acting President and Chair, EXIM 6 James C. Cruse, Acting First Vice President and Vice Chair, EXIM 8 Spencer Bachus, EXIM Director and former Congressman 10 Introduction '21-'22 Advisory Committee Members (Each member introduces themself) 14 Advisory Committee and Subcommittees Overview Chris Van Es, Senior Vice President, Communications & External Engagement, EXIM 61 Congressional and Administration Update Hazeen Ashby, Senior Vice President, Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs and White House Liaison, EXIM 63 Ethics Briefing Lisa Terry, Senior Vice President and Chief Ethics Officer, EXIM 67 EXIM Products and Services Overview Madolyn Phillips, Acting Chief Banking Officer, EXIM 72 EXIM Competitiveness Report Cassie Rowlands, Senior Analyst, Office of Policy Analysis and International Relations, EXIM 78 Open Committee Discussion 88 Public Comment 110 Adjournment The Honorable Heidi Heitkamp, Chair, EXIM Advisory Committee 118 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2:01 p.m. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: First off, I would like to welcome everyone to the EXIM Advisory Board. You'll have lots of opportunities for input. And hopefully, especially representing the industries that you represent, representing your own personal interests. But I wanted to kind of start out by giving you a little bit of my vision for what I hope the advisory board can accomplish. And I'm, albeit I have been, I think, out of fairness, I'm a little jaded by my experience when I was a United States senator. If you followed the EXIM Bank challenges when I was in the United States Senate, you'll know that basically we shut down the bank and we had a hell of a time getting the bank back up and running. And everybody had a million excuses for why they weren't going to do it. And as is typical, a lot of the criticism came from the far right or the far left. But the bank is an essential piece of trade infrastructure. And we found out that -- it was made pretty clear to us how significant the bank was to trade when you looked at the lack of ability to meet our constituents' demands in terms of export financing. And so I will kind of leave it at that and if, Chris, if you could just put up the agenda, that would be great. MR. VAN ES: Sounds good. We'll do that now. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Yeah. The staff did a great job putting together the agenda, but I thought, as a first matter, we would open up the agenda to anyone who wants any additions, who has a concern about, you know, kind of where this is structured. We're going to hold it to the strictly the two hours. And if we can do it in less time, even better. But I want to just, first off, just have kind of consensus on this agenda so we know where we're at. Any additions? Okay, well, I don't want to delay this anymore getting the kickoff done, so I'm going to turn it over for a Board of Directors welcome. And I think, Mr. Burrows, I think you're up first. CHAIRMAN BURROWS: Thank you. ma'am. Good afternoon. I'm Jim Burrows and I'm the acting Chair here at EXIM. It was an honor to be appointed into the role by President Biden back in July. I'm optimistic we'll have a senate-confirmed leadership team in place shortly. As most of you heard or had seen earlier online today, we had nomination hearings for our first Vice Chair and one of our board positions earlier this morning. And, fingers crossed, one will be scheduled for the chair position soon. I'm looking forward to getting -- re-assuming my role as Senior Vice President of the Office of Small Business once we get a chair confirmed and sworn in. But today, I'd like to welcome all of you as new Advisory Committee members for 2021/2022. The Advisory Committee provides an invaluable voluntary service in advising EXIM on how to better serve you as exporters and American -- America's workers. I'm especially appreciative of your leadership and support for EXIM that the former senator and advisory chair now, Heidi Heitkamp, has provided us over the years. So thank you, Senator Heitkamp, for all you've done and you continue to do for the Agency. It's much appreciated. I look forward to productive collaboration with all of you this year. I'm going to turn the mic, now, over to Mr. Jim Cruse, our acting first vice president and vice chair here at EXIM. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: I would ask -- if I can just interrupt -- I would ask anyone who isn't currently on mute, go ahead and mute yourself. We're getting some background noise. Thank you. So, Mr. Cruse? VICE CHAIR CRUSE: All right, thank you, Senator. Hi, yes, my name is Jim Cruse. I've been at the bank for a few decades and including from the time this committee was first created back in the mid-80s. I want to say that, over those years, I have seen this group contribute mightily to the bank. I mean, just a short list includes the fact that it was two members of this committee working together that created the content policy that still exists. This committee created the City/State program. That is now one of our prime activities. They have influenced the size and scope and specifics of the Competitiveness Report, which we will be talking about later. They have played a major role in some of the aspects of the small business program. And most recently, last year, they played an important role in forming the new China program as implemented under the 2019 legislation. So this committee is by no means just a way for us to get to know you, all right. This is an important avenue of influencing and helping the bank serve its myriad customers. I do think that this year is going to put before you what I call the three Cs: climate, China, and content. And I encourage that you all to engage on these issues. Between the subcommittees and this committee, you will be hearing a variety of things on all of these that you bring the vast perspectives that you all have and work together to find a consensus way of expressing your views. And that way, you can have the kind of influence that I've just identified that the committee can do. Right now, I'm the acting vice chairman. And, like Mr. Burrows, I hope to return to my role as a senior vice president for policy at some time not so far in the distant future. But until then, we welcome you and happy to assist you in any way we can. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Congressman? Is Congressman Bachus on? DIRECTOR BACHUS: I didn't unmute my mic. I would like to join with what you said, Senator. It was a tragedy in 2015 when the bank was shut down. And we lost a number of market share in a number of countries. And I left in January of 2015. That was my last year in Congress. And as you know, I was Chair of Financial Services. And I think you aptly said it was attacks from the far left and the far right. And it really is a shame. Prior to joining Congress, my appointee or service there, I was a small business owner and a senior partner of a one-man law firm. And I can appreciate, as a small business owner, the challenges. The EXIM team and I visited approximately a hundred businesses, most of them small, after I came onboard. And it was fascinating. I mean, each -- they share two or three traits. One of them is their strong dependency on how EXIM has supported them and their strong support for EXIM. And they range from a company right there in Washington, D.C. to some of the most smallest towns in the country. I know I visited a company an hour in a small town and they were, although they only had 24 employees, it made a third of the workforce in that town. I know I'm a small business designee and as such, I want to particularly welcome Robert and Venkee to the -- as members of the Board and hope to work for them. I visited Baron Services. I have not had the pleasure of visiting Aquatech, although I've looked at their business and they're just another example of an innovative company that's growing with EXIM support. Wanted to -- I didn't realize and I don't think many members of Congress realize two things. One is the storied history of EXIM. It started with the building of the Burma Road. It continued when they administered the Marshall Plan. Everything that was bought and shipped to here was procured by the EXIM bank. And while we know the Marshall Plan was one of the most successful programs in the history of this country, and in fact, Ms. Lewis, who I hope will be joining us as our chair, is at the German Marshall Fund now. And second thing that I'd like to stress is how much expertise we have the bank. We have professionals -- engineers, architects, financial accountants, financial experts. It's a real treasure. And as many of you -- many of you have had contacts and worked with the bank and you're just going to continue to be impressed by their expertise. The fact that we're willing to make loans under stress, when there's no private funding, when they're problems, yet we've turned a profit, is just amazing to me. They continue to talk about us being taxpayer subsidized but, in fact, we pay our own way. So in conclusion, again, I thank each and every one of you for being on the advisory committee. As Jim first said, you, in the past you, this committee has played a key role in helping us. Thank you. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thank you so much, Congressman. And we did a lot of good work together. Unfortunately, it was too big of a hill to climb. And I am extraordinarily proud of the bipartisan support that the bank has and the awareness that we all have of how significant the bank is to so many of our small businesses. And so I look forward to hearing more about those businesses and hearing more about their challenges and how we can continue to promote American entrepreneurship both in our country and abroad. And so if we're not exporting, we're losing in this new global economy. And so the EXIM Bank is such a critical part. We're now at the point where we want the advisory board to introduce themselves. I put the list in the chat and if you guys could just open the chat so you know when you're up, we're going alphabetically. And we're going to start with Nava. MEMBER AKKINEN: First of all, I want to thank U.S EXIM and our Board of Directors key conference and now meeting for this advisory committee. Many thanks Christopher and personally for having done this. And I work for a company called Nextracker, world leader and number one and with 30 percent worldwide market and also technology and solution providers in solar energy tracking systems and as a Vice President for Emerging Markets, so heavily focus on the international business. So just to give a little background about myself, I was 40 years' experience in the worldwide business, first ten years in India. Afterwards, ten years in the Middle East, Africa, basically chain of order to directive order. And before I moved to USA, to join my friends to be -- start up many companies. I'm the -- one of the cofounder for some of the companies here. So my experience involved in the personal computer to telecom, peripherals and also the mobile strategy. And for the last, almost 12 years, in the solar energy. And every time -- even when I was in India, I was always trying to link how the middle USA are making the USA, are made in the local country. Our advice was how the value can be derived. And the one in this new year, in 1980s, we used to have many strict import policies, so right from the Intel-based computers, our company Silicon Graphics, high-end graphics. We import companies that builds -- they're built in the USA but we make in India to assemble to follow the policies. I continued to promote this across the world. And the major U.S. EXIM, U.S. Trade and Commerce personally I tried to take it up last four years and I participated in Kenya, the conference. And everybody's presenting, create lot of funding from USA but there is a Chinese company and European EC. There is nobody participating from U.S. companies. So that is where we triggered heavily and I'm happy to say that we are the market leader in the region, enabling many, many countries. We want to be first for American company and we want to show we can compete with the Chinese product, with the value technology. So that is what I wanted to bring in. And just two weeks, back in Washington, D.C., one of our business partner, which will be funded by U.S. EXIM, we signed with Angola president a $1.5 billion solar and delivering the many grids and solar energy in all of the Angola country. So we have a lot of pipeline we built up and we have a very close -- we're working with U.S. EXIM and want to continue. There's a lot of five years. It's difficult to cover in one, two times, but I will be aggressively organizing. Just to conclude what Vice Chair mentioned, it was Vice Chair and also Mr. Spencer mentioned about the shutting down the U.S. EXIM. We are trying to promote it because definitely a lot of disturbance and disconnect with the market. So we need help from the U.S. EXIM chairman and chair to heavily do some kind of evenness and marketing that U.S. EXIM is bac to support. And just to give one example, India's First Solar project is funded by -- five megawatt -- funded by U.S. EXIM. And that is a kickoff of solar energy in India. Now today, you can understand how big it is right now. So we want to bring it. And I will be sharing with the U.S. EXIM executives all kind of ideas and our knowledge and also -- we also need help from the U.S. EXIM chairman to talk to Department of Trade, Department of Commerce, to provide the production incentives. And one of the strategies -- because the gap is still is almost like 37 percent, just for Tracker, some of the company. So we have to find a way to the -- break this gap. And the one last, here I want to say that one of the quick ways to level this is local manufacturing, also export from -- to other countries. And we will enable the existing facility and who are premiered all the way with the production and manufacturing activities so that we do need to retry immediately. That will be the first ramp-up. That is actually, we are shifting from China to U.S. all the state products manufacturing here. We just need help from U.S. Trade and Commerce to make sure that some tax production creates a -- AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Really important -- (Simultaneous speaking.) MEMBER AKKINENI: -- different direction. Thanks a lot, everybody. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Really an important reminder that EXIM doesn't stand alone on and aiding exporters. I think we're going to have to move on. Michael Brown? Mr. Brown, are you with us? Okay, Barbara Buchner? MEMBER BUCHNER: Yes, thank you so much. And I also would like to thank you first for appointing me to this advisory committee. It's a true pleasure. My name is Barbara Buchner. Actually, I'm an economist and I'm originally from Austria, as you can hear, but I've very lucky to be based out of San Francisco. I lead an advisory or a leading organization which is called Climate Policy Initiative. We are now a 501(c) public charity. And what we do is we work with governments, with businesses and financial institutions to drive the economic growth while addressing climate change. So we have our teams around the world. We have them in Brazil and India, Indonesia, in Kenya, United Kingdom and in the U.S. And we have deep expertise in finance and policy. I think the work that we do and for which we are mostly known for is really tracking sustainable investment trends, really showing how much money is flowing and who is behind the investments into climate and sustainable development action. And we also identify innovative business models. And I think what previous advisory committee member said here, I think, is already showing one of these business models that really can work. And we are supporting the solutions that can drive a transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy. Lots of work is focused on investment opportunities in emerging economies. And where we have managed to help mobilize more than $2.5 billion U.S. dollars is through an incubator program, a public/private partnership that originally actually was -- it was started with the help of the U.S. government and which is really focused on financial instruments, financial business models and solutions. And just a little bit more about myself, before helping to start my organization, CPI, I worked at the International Energy Agency and the OECD in Paris. And prior to that, I was in research and including as a visiting scholar at MIT which is where I started to fall in love with the U.S. And so I look forward to contributing my experience to help focus EXIM's activities on at least one of the three Cs that Mr. Cruse highlighted, Climate. But I think there's a lot of input that I also can bring to other -- the other two Cs, certainly the counterpart but also China where we have looked at opportunities for sustainable finance as well. And I think I'll just leave it here so we can continue to hear from others. Thank you so much again. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thank you. Mr. Cornelius? MEMBER CORNELIUS: Yes, I want to thank everyone and the Board for allowing me to be a member and to participate in this great advisory committee. And I'm really happy to be -- and honored to be here. And it's great to see you, Senator. I have worked and loved your work. And I'm happy to be under your leadership again. I am the senior director of the Milken Institute Center for Regional Economics. And we are a think tank that does research and policy and advocation for advancement of economic development in the United States and around the world, but particularly in our issue of job creation and small business advocate. Prior to that, I was the associate administrator for International Trade for the U.S. Small Business Administration. And I was appointed by the Obama administration as the acting deputy of the SBA during the transition. And I served prior to that as the associate administrator for SBA Business and Economic Development Operations which meant that the entire agency's 50 states' 68 district offices, eight regional offices all reporting to me in my area. So I have a very strong background in small business and exporting experience. But what I'm really excited about is two things that I saw the bank do this year for the first time. And I think we need to capitalize on them. And that is the B2B Virtual Matchmaking Conference that was held, visual workshop, and the head of the export credit agencies G12 meeting. I think these are where we need to do in the PR of the bank and bringing us back to where we should be after the 2015 issue. I'm very concerned and very interested in using our platform to advance the export credit insurance. I think that is -- when we talk about finance for small businesses, I think really pushing the export credit insurance in the small business arena is very important. And that would bring more of U.S. exporters into the bank and using the bank's products and services. So that's where I would concentrate. I want to make sure that everybody has a chance to say, so I will stop at this point. And again, Senator, thanks for being here. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Well, thank you so much. And I just want to point out that one of the challenges that we're going to have as a committee is getting beyond the so-called Bank of Boeing, Bank of GE. And it's just so great to hear at least the initial focus from everybody on small business and on these new emerging markets. I think that it's a wonderful story and I really applaud everyone for the selection because I think this is an advisory committee that's really going to tackle those perception issues that we have. Mr. Delleville, I think is how you pronounce his name? MEMBER DELLEVILLE: Hi, everyone. Thank you for allowing me to join the advisory committee. My name is Philippe Delleville. I work for Siemens Gamesa. We're one of the largest wind turbine manufacturers in the world with sales revenues right around $12 billion per year, so we're not your small business. We have about 115-gigawatt with, you know, of turbines installed in about 50 countries. We have worked very successfully with the U.S. EXIM Bank for projects in Uruguay, Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru -- so mainly Latin America and using supply out of our manufacturing plants in Kansas and Iowa. We also use as much as possible local sub suppliers for components that go into our turbines. We will be building more plants in the Northeast for the offshore turbines that we will start installing in the next two years. So, more than likely, these plants will be mostly for the U.S. in the first few years, but be available for export sales in the future, where we plan to use U.S. EXIM. Maybe a little concern on our end. We really love working with U.S. EXIM, but our products manufactured in the U.S. have not been so competitive for export because of the Chinese tariffs. We've really tried to localize as much as possible our supply chain in the U.S., but there are some electrical components and some large-scale components that we, unfortunately, still have to bring over from China and that penalizes the cost of our U.S. manufacturing. But for the rest, I'm really happy to be part of the group here. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thank you so much. Mr. Dreisewerd? MEMBER DREISEWERD: That's close -- close enough. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Help me out. MEMBER DREISEWERD: Very close. Very close. Bob Dreisewerd, vice president for a small business called Baron Services. So Congressman Bachus mentioned us in his opening remarks. Baron Services is located in Huntsville, Alabama. So we are a small business that provides climate and weather products and solutions globally. So here in the States, you may have seen us on local television. If you turn into a local television station, you've likely seen our weather display products and our weather data products on television. We were responsible for upgrading the U.S. National Weather Service Doppler weather radar here domestically. And we also provide weather data into aircraft and marine boats. General Aviation get our weather information over a distribution called SiriusXM. So we're here in the States. That's our primary business, but speaking globally, we export our products and solutions globally. And that primarily concerns doppler weather radars to other government agencies around the globe, weather-modeling services, weather displays and weather data services. So exporting globally has become very important from us from a small business perspective. And EXIM has been a very large help in helping a small business like ourselves be more competitive in the global marketplace when we're talking about exports. I'll kind of bring an interesting perspective to this. We worked a -- we were working a very large program in Indonesia from about 2013 to 2017, working with EXIM. And as you can imagine, you probably know what happened during that time period because of the issues with EXIM, we were unable to move forward with that project. And unfortunately, that project went to another company in France. Thankfully, they were one of our partners, so we got some piece of that business, but we lost out on that business because of the issues with the bank at the time. And we were working another large program. We're actively working that program overseas through EXIM, so an interesting perspective on all the inter-workings of working that project from a small business perspective dealing with other governments worldwide. We're actively working that now so we can talk about issues and challenges that we're seeing in that regard as we're working that program. So again, I thank you for the opportunity to serve on the advisory committee. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thank you. And can we, just for my education, you're representing Financial Services, right? MEMBER DREISEWERD: No, Small Business Weather and Climate Services. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Yeah, well, it's -- MEMBER DREISEWERD: So we provide other climate information. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Yeah. Then we need to fix that -- on -- oh, services. I need to learn to read. Anyway, it's good to see you and congratulations on an amazing business model. And we're going to turn to Mr. Ferguson now. MEMBER FERGUSON: Senator, thank you very much. My name is Rodney Ferguson. I am the president and CEO of Winrock International Winrock International is an international development organization. We were founded by members of the Rockefeller family in 1985, bringing together three of the legacy organizations into the modern Winrock. And in addition to agriculture, economic development and anti trafficking work, we have a large international program in environment and climate and environmental sustainability. We, among other efforts on the environment side, we own the American Carbon Registry in California which is the registry for California Cap and Trade Program. And we are heavily involved in carbon, development of carbon platforms for carbon trading around the world including The LEAF Coalition which was announced earlier this year by the White House. We are the administrator and manager of that program. That looks to create an international forest trading registry as a way to combat climate change. I'm very fortunate to be a holdover from the last advisory committee. I thank my colleagues at EXIM for re-nominating me, and I'm delighted to have the opportunity to serve. I am ostensibly here to represent the environmental community which I define as both environment advocacy organizations who are interesting in the entire spectrum of environmental sustainability and climate issues but also the export industries that are working to help provide industrial and technological solutions to climate change and to my new colleague on the community, who just -- from Baron. I am joining you today from Huntsville, Alabama. As well, where I'm, just for a couple days, I'm down here with my -- visiting my family. And, but I'm mostly in Washington, D.C. We're headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. We're in 45 countries around the world. And I just wanted to say I applaud the staff of EXIM and the leadership for promoting climate in this new administration as a primary focus of EXIM's activities and for the creation of the sub-committee on climate. I think it is beyond appropriate at this time to focus on how American exporters plus small businesses very large businesses can help support the climate agenda. We, as most of you know, we have rejoined the Paris Agreement. We are restarting our efforts on becoming -- or rejoining the conversation, as I say, on climate adaptation around the world. And that is welcome news to Winrock and to many of you, I know, on this phone call. And I really look forward to being part of the conversation about how we can use export the EXIM Bank's many skills and tools and financing opportunities to help advance that agenda. It is of existential concern to many of us and should be for all of us. So thank you, Senator, for -- I look forward to working with you and all of the directors who are on the call and particularly my fellow Alabamians, Mr. Bachus and all of you for all of your support and efforts. And thank you very much. I look forward to it. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thanks so much, Mr. Ferguson. Sally Gilligan -- Gilligan? I think I got that right. MEMBER GILLIGAN: You got it. Just like the island. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Bet you that's not the first time you've heard people say that, right? MEMBER GILLIGAN: I do do it myself, though. I just wanted to start by saying thank you to the Board and the committee, likewise, and to Senator. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to participate with all of you. Again, Sally Gilligan. I represent Gap, Inc. We are the largest U.S. apparel company at $16 billion from our top line perspective. We sell in over 90 countries and we source from our value chain in over 39, most of those developing economies that we feel very strongly about investing in and we feel strongly about making sustainable economics part of our mission. And we are one of the largest U.S. employers with over 100,000 employees across the U.S. And we also illustrate that we were recognized for being one of the most diverse employees in the U.S. In my capacity, I oversee our government affairs and our public policy. I also help support all of our work we do on trade, equally. And I look forward to the partnership as we continue to want to invest in U.S. jobs with this committee and how we think about doing that holistically in a global economy. And I also am very passionate. I own our sustainability work and I'm thrilled to hear all of the comments around climate. We have made a commitment to be water-positive and carbon-neutral. To do that, though, particularly with our footprint across these developing countries, we'll take partnership in financing, particularly to see some of the technology be available in these emerging markets. And so I look forward to opportunities and partnership with each of you and how we can bring that to bear. And I think there is a world of opportunity ahead of us. So again, I thank you for the opportunity and I look forward to being of service. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thank you so much, Sally. Lieutenant Governor Heck? MEMBER HECK: Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Denny Heck and I have the honor to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Washington State, having just been electing last November. Prior to that, I served four terms in the House of Representatives -- the U.S. House of Representatives. And I had the privilege to overlap briefly with Congressman Bachus as I was a member of the Financial Services Committee. And I worked hand-in-glove with Senator Heitkamp on the two re-authorizations ago. I was also instrumental in the most recent re-authorization and I am proud beyond measure that we were able to do that on a seven-year basis and not have to fight this ridiculous battle every time we turn around. A point of great pride in my life was after the 25th re-authorization. The bank presented me with a large blow-up poster about the re-authorization which all the employees or many of the employees had signed. Heidi got one too. Mine's hanging in my house. It's something that I feel so strongly about. I'm honored to be here because I believe in the mission, because I am honored to work with Senator Heitkamp again. It is a natural fit for me. I'm on the Governor's Council on Economic Advisors Bylaws. I chair the Legislative Committee on Economic Development. We are, in Washington State, the most trade-driven state in the United States. Heidi, it's not just airplanes, thank you very much. We also -- AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: I know that. Congressman, I know that. It's just that we had to fight that battle -- or it's the Bank of Boeing. And I just want to make this point about that. You know, I would say, no, it's that small manufacturer that's part of that supply chain in Ohio. The largest supply chain for Boeing is out of Texas. And that was the toughest state for us in re-authorizations. So I'm just -- little editorial talk in there. MEMBER HECK: You see these old hierarchical patterns of Senate here and House here? I'm the only member she interrupted. And I deferred -- I'm not worthy of Senator Heitkamp. But we also support Manhasset music stands made in Yakima, Washington. We support PEPCO traffic cones made in Fife, Washington. I'm looking forward to working with all of you, contributing how I may. I'm especially interested in focusing our work in part on what can we do to lay the foundation such that six years from now, when we go through re-authorization again, it's automatic because we ought not have to fight this battle. Thank you, Madam Chair. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Lai? MEMBER LAI: Hello, thank you. It's such an honor to be here with all of you lawmakers and prominent small businesses and many household names, in fact. I am the CEO and co-inventor of SleepPhones which are these headphones that you can fall asleep in. We are a small business, definitely small. We earn just a few million dollars a year. And we're located in Erie, Pennsylvania which is, of course, part of the Rust Belt in this country. And so my background is as a family doctor. I was having trouble getting back to sleep late at night after patient phone calls. And so then my husband suggested that I listen to some relaxing music, which we found out, you know, there's all kinds of, you know, guided relaxation and stuff like that but there were no headphones that I could listen to comfortably late at night. And I didn't want to have the stereo on or anything like that that would disturb him. And then earbuds are just very uncomfortable. So we invented our on, my husband and I. He's a software developer. And then that was about 13 years ago. We've grown the business bootstraps since. And we saw, in fact, all over the world on pretty much every single continent we've shipped to, including Antarctica and from a B2C perspective over a hundred countries; from a B2B perspective over two dozen countries we work with distributors. And our supply chain is global as well. And so we have some suppliers from Taiwan, some from China. My background, my parents are from Taiwan. And I came to the U.S. when I was seven, so I grew up here basically. And I do speak some Mandarin and every week I talk to our suppliers in China to just, you know, random different things -- COVID, whatever. And it's been a lot of interesting conversations that I've had with them over time. So again, it's an honor. I'm definitely a small business. I'm still learning a lot about business and just, you know, how everything works in this world. I don't really know that much economics or anything like that. So it would be interesting to see kind of how my story and what my experiences are and how it fits into this global, larger picture. So it's an honor. Thank you. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thank you, and congratulations on your business. What a great idea. In fact, I'm going to look you up because you're in my lane. I need your product. Kathie Leonard? MEMBER LEONARD: Hello. I'm Kathie Leonard. What an interesting group this is and high energy. I love it. This is not my first time on this committee. I was on one -- on this committee two years ago. And then I was moved over to the China Competition Committee last year. So it's nice to be back to this group and with so many new faces. My background is textiles too, but nothing like the Gap would ever buy. And we are -- we've been in business 42 years. We make heat-resistant, fire-resistant fabrics that are used primarily by industry. And so you would think that would be a very mundane business with not much going on. Well, it's amazing how many places use heat-resistant fabrics. We started the business to replace asbestos in industrial applications such as petrochemical plants, ship building, you name it. But it grew from there because there is just all this new, innovative ideas coming forward all the time that have to maintain heat. So our materials are used to insulate. They're used to protect from fire, protect people. And so it's been very interesting for the past 42 years. We grew from just two people here in Maine. We've always been located in the state of Maine where textiles were big until they moved south. But who was left were a lot of survivors like us. And we went into specialty fibers and so we work with Kevlar, Nomex, fiberglass, silica. We make materials that are used by the defense industry and even sell directly to the government for the naval shipyards around the country. So lots of customers and we've actually grown to where we sell around the world. Believe it or not, we sell to over 30 countries. I never thought we would do that but they came to us. And people like American technology. They like our products. And we've been able to compete for most of those years. But to say that that's how I got involved with EXIM Bank, how I became a cheerleader for EXIM Bank was, just to James' point earlier, about credit insurance. We were -- we found ourselves not -- unable to borrow against our credit line, our asset-based credit line, when we shipped offshore because we didn't have credit insurance on those accounts. And that even included Mexico. Canada was the only country we could sell to interchangeably. And I would have had to buy like a $50,000 insurance policy in order to cover those receivables. And there was no insurance that you were going to continue to have those export sales, so it didn't make sense to do it that way. Well, EXIM was there with this wonderful credit insurance. It's sort of a pay as you go service. And it was just really a godsend for us. And so that allowed us to be good, better vendors to the rest of the world where we can give people 60-day terms to get our products. And some of our products go to India where it takes a long to get the products there, Australia and so forth. So it really allowed us to look like a much bigger company than just a 50-person outfit. I always feel proud when I can give good customers -- they have to earn the credit, but once they are there, they're there for life because they love the fact that we have this ability to give them credit terms, just like we do to everybody in the United States. So it's -- and so belonging to a textile organization, when EXIM Bank came under fire, I was chosen to be the one to stand up for EXIM Bank, you know, in our meetings to try and bolster their efforts and wasn't able -- you know, I didn't make much of a dent in it, but it did lead to my being nominated to represent the textile industry two years ago or at least to be a textile representative two years ago. Now I see that I'm representing production, and that's fine too because we make -- we do produce our products. We are also -- we were in fierce competition and still are to some degree with China. So that's been a project that's been near and dear to my heart because China was undercutting -- well, dumping into the United States. We files an anti-dumping case against China in 2016 and we were successful and found that the Chinese prices were, what, about 40 percent less than ours. And, you know, it was due to subsidies. Everywhere you turned there were subsidies. So we were successful there. We're still fighting the fight because there's ways to circumvent and so forth. And so China's just -- it's an interesting, wonderful country but, you know, we're fierce competitors there. So that's what -- I'm glad to be back on this committee. I can be kind of a Johnny one note because I am an American producer. I like to buy American. Our supply chains are American. And so, you know, I'm a big Made in USA fan as well. So look forward to -- AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thank you. MEMBER LEONARD: -- working with you. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thanks so much, Kathie. What a great story. I will just say that Bob -- Brad Markell notified us he's not able to attend today. He is busy doing his job on the Hill. And so he will bring, I think, an interesting perspective and very much about, you know, how can we use the export base to promote American labor and to make sure that that American labor is not being undercut. Dan Pinho -- Pinho? MEMBER PINHO: Yeah, Pinho. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Pinho. MEMBER PINHO: Hi. So I'm -- it's Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese. So yes, I'm Daniel Pinho. I'm the Deputy Manager at PNC Bank here in Pittsburgh. I'm glad to see a lot of people from Pennsylvania. I've been PNC. PNC is very active in EXIM Bank's medium and long-term program, both insurance and guarantees and working capital. And I have been doing -- I've been here for 17-1/2 years but my experience with EXIM Bank goes back over 25 years or more -- probably ten years prior to PNC. I started, you know, my first experience with EXIM Bank was when I was working at a consulting firm in Brazil trying to find finance for one of our clients to import some equipment. And that's how it started. Eventually, I became a bank representative and then came to the U.S. to work on my MBA and working on the bank and worked my way through to the U.S. Financial Service industries. And I've seen like -- I've seen everything, I think, on EXIM Bank over these past two decades. I've seen signs of business development both in the U.S. and overseas, roughing deals, underwriting, closing and collections and evens claims, unfortunately. I mean, I've had that experience on all the programs. But in this spectrum, I have done financed equipment then went to offshore drilling and to transmitters. I went to satellites. I've seen anything, almost everything from the bottom of the ocean to the sky, as far as the stars. And just started working at PNC, I also co-chair BAFT for export trade and export finance committee. BAFT stands for Bankers Association for Finance and Trade. It has a very close relationship with EXIM Bank. And back, I know since everybody mentioned it, in 2015, we were heavily impacted by the 2015 closure. But throughout my work with BAFT, I went to Congress several times to speak on behalf of EXIM Bank and then banking in the Financial Services sector, I even keep my little -- I don't know if you can see it, but my little coalition button that I still carry around. And when I go through trade shows, I did EXIM Bank 101 with -- together with the Financial Services Roundtable talking to congressional members and staff and told them that EXIM Bank has been in my -- the bulk of my professional career. In addition to BAFT and PNC -- I have to cut the grass right now -- is I also, talking about opportunities, I serve as the -- have served as a board member of Ten Thousand Villages which is a founding member of the World Fair Trade Federation. Ten Thousand Villages is a fair trade movement, so I think working with EXIM Bank is the other side of fair trade. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Oh, thank you. Thanks so much, Dan. Raguso? MEMBER RAGUSO: Yes, TJ Raguso. Thank you, Senator, and good to be with you all. This is actually my third time serving on the advisory committee and I really appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve. I have 25-plus years in international banking. I work for Zions Bancorporation. And we're a $75 billion regional bank and we are -- we operate in 11 western states under different brand names. Including Lieutenant Governor Heck, we are in Washington State. We're at 6th and Union. We are the Commerce Bank of Washington. And I am standing in Amegy Bank in Houston, Texas. But we are Zions Bancorporation. We're primarily a small and medium size kind of business focused bank. But we are two of the largest exporting states, California and Texas. And we've been a bank that's always been about building the product capability to the needs of the market that we serve, and that is an exporting market. And EXIM Bank has always been part of that. We've been working with EXIM for over 25 years. We're a delegating lender for the working capital program, you know, just like Daniel at PNC is. And really our experience is primarily with all of the small business products that EXIM has to offer -- working capital, short-term insurance, multi-buyer and also the medium-term programs as well. And sensitive about the argument about Boeing, Senator, because, you know, many of the customers that we would bank would be the supply chain customers. And we pushed back really hard during the re-authorization time on that issue, is trying to -- can't you just separate that out? I said it is impossible to separate that out. I told plenty of congressmen that in those conversations as did Daniel and we're in the same places at the same time. And I will tell you, Senator, your office was the friendliest. The unfriendliest was probably one of the senators from Texas. So anyway, even with a strong exporting strain, you still be up against that argument. And so anyway, I just -- I've seen firsthand how the programs of EXIM Bank benefit our customers. And in that re-authorization, I just felt like was a voice for the customers and a way to amplify those arguments in front of our elected representatives. And so I did have the opportunity to testify on a committee after the 41st and I learned the difference between a question and a statement for the record, so I'll always carry that experience with me. And I will tell you, I'll conclude and say I promise to bring a Main Street perspective to this committee. Our bank is headquartered at One South Main Street in Salt Lake City, Utah AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Well, thank you so much and thank you so much for all the hard work. I mean, we're all a little battle weary, aren't we? And I think one of the things -- and just not to interrupt the flow here, you know, to create the resiliency that we need, that this never happens again is a huge component of what we can get done. And it's a big reason why I took this opportunity. So now we're on to Sharma. MEMBER SHARMA: Hi. Thank you, Senator Heitkamp and look forward to working with you under your leadership. I am fortunate, as a few others are on this committee, to be on it for the third time. And I look forward to contributing with a perspective from the environmental production as well as small business aspects. We've been part of the, you know, and had a relationship with EXIM for over 25 years. We started out as an extremely small business and without the support of EXIM, we would not have been able to grow into 60-plus countries around the world. And I also want to note that it's great to see Daniel on this team. I -- we're both in Pittsburgh and PNC has been a key -- PNC with their delegated authority has been our bank. And we thank you for your support. They've been fantastic. But without the support of EXIM, the right delegated lenders and the programs that are available, I just don't see how a small business exporter can grow and make it happen around the world. And I think exporting with the -- we're so interconnected globally, exporting is extremely critical. I was just today -- that's why I'm wearing a tie and not sweats -- I was just in a roundtable with Secretary Raimondo on clean tech and exporting. And so, you know, I'm very excited with the 3 Cs -- climate change; content, which we were in the last year, again, competitiveness, report very engaged in as well as China which is a competitor in a competitive situation that is -- affects all of us. What we do is we're one of the major exporters, perhaps the largest in -- for desalination for wastewater recycle/reuse and zero liquid discharge. And we also do things like process solutions for -- we produce and our equipment produces lithium carbonate, lithium sulfate for electric vehicle batteries. So, you know, we're right in the middle of things biomass to jet fuels, biomass to other useable items -- carbon capture solutions around the world, electric vehicle infrastructure including batteries and the mass energy transition that's going on in the U.S. and the world. So we're very excited with the priorities. We're excited with China and the transformational exporting program and how to continue to develop that agenda. I think one of the things we were very -- and I'm a big proponent of that becomes very difficult as an exporter and it's become very important to us is the more of a whole of government approach. You know, I brought this up with Commerce. It's been a subject during our last report. And, you know, we work with DFC. We work with EXIM. And we work with Commerce. It's really difficult to get a unified face out there and, you know, make that happen. And I think that's something that we should consider as part of our agenda. Senator -- Congressman Bachus, thank you for mentioning us. You're welcome as is everybody else to visit us in Canonsburg, PA. We're 40 years old this year and all founded in Pittsburgh. Thank you. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: I'm starting to feel like we're surrounded by Pennsylvania. You know, you guys -- well, I could have used some help with Toomey -- just saying. DIRECTOR BACHUS: Heidi, could I say -- this is Congressman Bachus. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Yes? DIRECTOR BACHUS: Could I add something real quick? Daniel mentioned maybe -- he's PNC. They recently took over Compass, BBVA which is probably the leading bank in financing projects in Latin America and certainly in South America. And PNC, Regions and Zion, Compass BBVA probably were some of our largest supporters. So it's great to have Daniel on the Board and looking forward to visiting Pennsylvania and Aquatech International. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Terrific. Thanks so much, Congressman. MEMBER SHARMA: Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Mr. White? MEMBER WHITE: Thank you, Senator. My name is David White. I'm the Director of Strategic Lending Services at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers at the union's headquarters. I've been with the IAM since 2001. My department generally provides economic financial analysis in support of contract negotiations and we also were invited for -- involved with training for representatives out in the field. And we provide various research and analysis and support for the work that other sectors of the union are involved with, other departments, their headquarters. We were seriously it's one of the largest investor trade unions in North America representing nearly 600,000 active and retired members in a variety of industries including manufacturing, aerospace, airline, railroad transportation, woodworking, ship building, all kinds of other industries. And it is a firmly held belief in our organization that U.S. jobs depend on a fully functioning export/import bank to provide the final financing of the export of U.S. made products. So I'm very honored and appreciative and look forward to the vote that's taking place in the advisory committee. Thank you. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thanks so much. MEMBER HECK: Madam Chair? AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Yeah? MEMBER HECK: I apologize. I know we're running behind time, but this comment has to be made. In the last re-authorization the bill that we would have gotten would have been very weak, possibly not even workable and would have been for a short re-authorization period of time -- if not for the staunch, strong advocacy of the machinists. They almost single-handedly were the firewall between a bad bill and the good bill we got. And they don't get enough credit for it. David, I'm thrilled you're on the advisory committee. I'm thrilled to serve with you. Thank you, IAM, for your effective advocacy. MEMBER WHITE: Thank you for that recognition. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Well, you mean, it's going to take all of us from -- coming from this at various directions to build out the resiliency and the stability for the bank. You know, we'd like to think that lessons were learned but you know, in Washington, there's no such thing as a permanent lesson learned. So we're going to go ahead and turn this now over to talk about congressional administrative updates from the White House. And then we'll go through this agenda. MR. VAN ES: Thanks, Senator Heitkamp. I'll be brief. And I know my colleague, Hazeen Ashby, can give us an update on very much the topic of the day here, our nominees. From my side, I will highlight a couple things. And again, in addition to the topics that have come up so far, I'd highlight two priorities that we are working on as we go forward. Number one is strengthening America's supply chains. This is an administration priority. It goes above and beyond EXIM but very much includes EXIM. Right now our policy team is working on a domestic financing program that will hopefully help find financing solutions for domestic manufacturing with a nexus, an export nexus. So to the extent that members of this committee have ideas and things that we should consider, we would love to hear them. And, number two is rebuilding EXIM's general global and business outreach. You know, for EXIM being on the sidelines for so many years, for us, I think a big part of what we're trying to do is simply get back in the game and back at the table. And so we would love to work with all of you in making sure that we do that in a smart and strategic way. The last thing that I will talk about is just the general committee, the broad committee structure for the year ahead. I think some of you might be familiar with this. But just to reiterate, this is the main advisory committee. In addition to this, we've got a statutory committee on Sub Saharan Africa and financing there. We've got two new, new-ish additional subcommittees. One is the Chair's Council on China Competition which was started under the last Chair, Kimberly Reed, and we are continuing into this year. And the other new committee is the Chair's Council on Climate. I know a few of you are going to be on that committee and so very, very much looking forward to hearing ideas about how EXIM can help finance renewables, finance the energy transition. And with that, I'll turn it over to Hazeen for updates on our nominees. MS. ASHBY: Hi. Good afternoon. Can you guys hear me, Chris? Okay, great. Sorry about that. So as Chris said, I work and Chris said my name's Hazeen. And I work in our Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs Office. Congressionally, we are focused on several things. First, as he said -- and foremost -- we, this morning, we just had our first nomination hearing before the Senate Banking Committee. Our first Vice President nominee, Judith Pryor and board member nominee, Owen Herrnstadt who was a longtime advisory committee member and a member of the machinists' union did an absolutely amazing job answering questions this morning. It went as well as we could have expected it. So we are -- we're excited and we're hoping that they'll be reported to our committee soon and they'll get a short confirmation. We also are expecting that Reta Jo Lewis, our nominee for the president of EXIM, that she'll receive a hearing before the end of the month. If you guys are wondering what exactly you can do right now to help us in this -- I mean, it's contact your members, especially your senators, and let them know that you would like to see a short confirmation for all three of them. But if we get, probably within the next like week or two or three weeks, the end of October and we haven't received a hearing for Ms. Lewis, I would love for you guys to reach out and say we'd love to have that hearing. We know that it's just, right now it's just a time issue. They have nominees for next week so she won't be able to fit in on that schedule and we're hoping the next two, the next three weeks that she'll get that hearing. But, yes, definitely I say reach out and advocate for us to get our nominees sometime soon. That'd be great. Outside of nominations, the team at EXIM continues to focus on following through on several Congressional mandates that were enacted as part of our 2019 re-authorization. Among those modernization efforts, Congress asked EXIM to do more to support small businesses, women and minority owned businesses, veteran owned businesses and environmentally beneficial products. Congress also tasked us with standing up a program on Congressional and transformational exports which I think we've talked about a lot today, which I'm sure you guys have heard a lot about. And we also are charged with looking at being more -- the other, I think, less sexy portions of the 2019 re-authorization. We were working on making sure that we're being extremely transparent and letting Congress know of all the things that we are doing and all the work that we hope to get done sometime soon to really further the Biden/Harris Build Back Better agenda. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thanks so much. MS. ASHBY: You're welcome. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Now we're going to have an ethics brief -- just full disclosure, I'm also on the Board of the German Marshall Fund, so this will be an interesting collaboration because we've worked together for the last year and a half at GMF, so it's -- MS. ASHBY: Yeah, she was telling me. She said that you were absolutely amazing and I was like, I remember her when I worked for Senator Nelson and I thought she was great then and super excited that you're here to be our Chair. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Well, and I'm super excited about this nominee. And so good advice. If you can reach out, this could be absolutely critical in moving it forward. I think Ethics, we need an ethics briefing, Lisa? MS. TERRY: Yes. Good afternoon, everyone. Can you hear me? Perfect. Good afternoon and welcome. My name is Lisa Terry. And I serve as EXIM's Chief Ethics Officer. Per EXIM's charter, the Chief Ethics Officer reports directly to the Board of Directors. And I've served in this positions since October of 2016 and I oversee EXIM's robust ethics program. My staff and I are responsible for promoting an ethical culture and ensuring that EXIM employees comply with all the ethics rules and requirements that apply to us across the federal government. I'd like for you to know that the Board and senior management place great importance on ethics at the bank and expect the highest ethical standards of themselves, our employees and now of you as well, as members of the Committee. So I'm pleased to provide an overview of the ethics standards that apply to you as advisory committee members. First, as it relates to your status, of course you know that you're not employees of the federal government. So that means that you're not subject to the vast ethics rules that apply to all of us as government employees. So, for instance, you're not required to file financial disclosure statements as we are and you're not limited in the types of assets that you may own. But as you may guess, you are in a position of public trust. And so that means that you must avoid any actions that are either unethical or appear to be unethical. And we place great importance on appearances at EXIM because I'm sure, as you can imagine, appearances of a violation can sometimes be as damaging to an institution as an actual ethical violation. And so what that means is that, in your personal or professional capacity, you may not use your position on the advisory committee for your private gain either for yourself or for others. So even though the vast set of ethics rules that apply to us as government employees don't apply to you, we have identified some specific principles to guide you. First, you should not take advantage of any non-public information that you may learn as advisory committee members. So, for instance, if you learn that a company is about to receive EXIM financing for a substantial export contract that will double its revenues, of course, you should not disclose that information to others for use or use it to your own advantage. You also should not use your position on the advisory committee to induce another to provide a benefit to you or to another. So, for example, if you are an EXIM customer or you know someone who has an application pending with EXIM, you may not use your position on the Committee to gain special access for yourself or for another. So you shouldn't identify yourself as an advisory committee member and then request expedited processing for a pending application. But of course you can make use of the processes that are available to the public in the ordinary course of business, as any customer would. Another principle to guide you, you should not use your position on the advisory committee in a manner that could imply that EXIM Bank sanctions or endorses a particular private entity's business activities. So, for instance, if a commercial banker you know is promoting an innovative trade finance initiative. The banker can use your name but not your EXIM tile in his or her marketing materials. And then lastly, I'm glad that Hazeen mentioned advocacy because we do have some guidelines that relate to political advocacy. And we just want to make clear that we, as an understanding of what you can do in your personal capacity as it relates to advocacy on top -- on behalf of the bank. So you are permitted to engage in advocacy relating to your -- to EXIM in your personal or professional capacity. And so, by professional capacity, that means as, you know, CEO of your company. So as Hazeen suggested, you know, get -- contact your senator and you may advocate on behalf of our nominees either in your personal capacity or your professional capacity. But you may not do that as an advisory committee member. And this -- it kind of relates to some complicated anti-lobbying restrictions on the use of federal funds. We don't need to get into all the legal authority for all of that, but you're not allowed to do that in your capacity as an advisory committee member. And that's the end of my presentation. And if you have any questions, feel free to contact me or the Deputy Chief Ethics Officer, Lance Mathews. Thanks, everyone. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thanks so much. We're going to take the next item on the agenda. I think it's on the bank products. MS. PHILLIPS: Yes, hi. I'm Madolyn Phillips. I'm having a -- probably because I'm teed up to speak, I'm having a tiny computer glitch. So I apologize if I cut you off, Senator. I want to introduce myself again. I'm Madolyn Phillips. I'm the Acting Chief Banking Officer. Ordinarily, I'm the Deputy Chief Banking Officer. And I want to give a very brief overview of EXIM bank's programs. And then if, during the Q&A period, anybody has any specific questions about a program or product or about our portfolio, of course I'll be happy to answer it. But generally speaking, I want to share with those of you who are not as familiar with EXIM Bank -- and I just want to, quick, shout out to Daniel Pinho. He and I have been working together for so many years it kind of scares me a little bit at this point. But in any event, the way we talk about our programs are as follows. First we talk about them in terms of products. And those are insurance, loan guarantees and direct loans. We also talk about them, those very same products, in terms of tenor and transaction size. So we have short-term programs -- well, the short-term program which is our insurance -- export credit insurance program which is, as you know, provides insurance coverage for up to one year. It is primarily smaller sized transactions for smaller businesses. But we can insure very large transactions and large exporters as well. And we sometimes talk about the Working Capital Guarantee Program as also being a short-term program. However, we do have authority to go up to three years in that program, so that's a little bit of a wrinkle. Then we have the medium-term bucket and that is both insurance and loan guarantees. So short-term is insurance only. Medium-term is medium-term insurance and medium-term guarantees. The definition here is a transaction that does not exceed $25 million and that does not exceed a tenor of seven years. And then we have the long-term bucket. And again, those are loan guarantees and direct loans. And the definition here is more that $25 million and a tenor of greater than seven years. So again, it's insurance, loan guarantees, direct loans, short-term, medium-term, long-term. And then the third way that we talk about our programs is in terms of pre-shipment financial support and post-shipment financial support. Pre-shipment refers to primarily our Working Capital Guarantee Program and now also our Supply Chain Finance Program. And so what we're doing here is we're actually providing financing to American companies for the benefit of their exporting business. Post-shipment, this is what -- these are the mechanism that people are most familiar with. This is where we underwrite foreign borrowers. We provide cover for U.S. exporters, but the underwriting the credit is on the foreign borrower. And then, lastly, we have some areas of specialization which you'll also hear about. For example, we offer co financing with other ECAs and, in some cases, also some private insurers. And this is where we share risk on a transaction with other ECAs, primarily with which we have treaty agreements to either lead or follow in a risk-sharing structure. This program is available for medium-term but, honestly, we really use if for larger, longer-term transaction -- those transactions of more than $25 million typically and that have a tenor of seven years or longer. We also do project finance, as you all know, which is highly specialized. We, in the project finance program, we offer both loan guarantees and direct loans. And then also we have, you know, for example, another area of specialization in addition to the China flexibilities that you all have heard about the China Flexibilities Program -- pardon me. You know, we also have a program to support environmental exports which gives us flexibilities for companies in that sector as well. There are many other, you know, sort of wrinkles related to how EXIM Bank does business, but those tend to be a bit arcane so I'm not going to go into the full panoply of ways in which we support American companies. That's the brief overview. And then I'll just echo a comment that Chris Van Es made earlier. We -- he and I are working together to re-establish what we have every expectation will be a very robust business development that will be sustainable at EXIM Bank and that will be both broad-based and targeted. And I would like to just echo back to a comment that one of the members made about federal coordination, interagency. We also have plans to build partnerships with those agencies that can extend EXIM Bank's reach internationally and to make those partnerships more productive, not just for ourselves but obviously for, you know, American exporters. So I will stop there and, as I said, if anybody has any questions about the portfolio I'll be glad to answer them. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thanks so much. Cassie Rowlands? MS. ROWLANDS: Yes, hi. Good afternoon. My name's Cassie Rowlands. I'm here to talk to you about the advisory committee's role with respect to the Competitiveness Report that the bank produces annually and which many of you have already mentioned. So I'm going to be pretty quick here because I don't want to take away from your discussion time. Let me just share my screen quickly. Okay. Hopefully you all can see that. Just let me know if not. So the advisory committee has a statutory role related to the Competitiveness Report. Our law says that the advisory committee shall advise EXIM on its programs and it should also submit with the Competitiveness Report each year its own comments on the extent to which EXIM is meeting its mandate to provide competitive financing and any suggestions for improvements on that. So this is a lot of wording and you all can refer back to this presentation later, but essentially our statute, our charter, says that the bank is directed to provide loans, guarantees and insurance on rates, terms and conditions that are competitive with those provided by foreign governments to the benefit of their exporters. We have to provide the Competitiveness Report each year by June 30th to Congress to assess how well EXIM is doing that and then the report, among other things, has to include a survey of the amount of government-supported export financing across the globe and then a survey of exporters and lenders and their views also related to EXIM's competitiveness. So in layman's terms, what we do is compile data, program policy information, export community perspectives, put that all together in a report and make an analysis of whether the community believes EXIM is fulfilling its mandate to provide fully competitive financing. We convey the views of exporters and lenders as our statute says we should do. And we do that through a survey, focus groups. We attend industry conferences. We have one-on-one meetings and we take a look at a number of public reports. So the advisory committee's statement should reflect your experiences and whether we have captured what you all are seeing in the market and whether or not the findings of the report align with your experience. And just from hearing you all today, we clearly have quite a lot of experience and knowledge about the export finance market and working with EXIM and EXIM's competitiveness, so very much looking forward to you all as you prepare your statement for next year's report. Just a little background on our data collection, our charter says we need to use all available information to estimate the amount of official export financing available across the globe. So that is quite a feat for us. We do quite a lot of outreach to other export credit agencies and governments to collect their data on the activity that they have had in the previous calendar year. We, like I said, conducted a survey of exporters and lenders. We conduct annual focus group meetings. We conduct interviews, like I mentioned. We use export sources, statements, speeches, et cetera at conferences, industry publications, academic third-party research and then a separate third-party survey that looks at other export credit activity and EXIM's activity. So my last -- go ahead. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Cassie, I was going to ask you, as you look at this data collection, how confident are you that we are securing accurate information by other credit agencies, particularly those who are staunch competitors, export competitors of ours? MS. ROWLANDS: Sure. Well, for the vast majority of countries, we have great bilateral relationships with them and we're able to go to them directly, obtain their data. And we comb through it. We check it amongst other sources of data we've received and we're able to ask questions and we're very confident in that data. Of course, for some countries like China, who do not respond to our data requests, we have to use a number of publicly available sources. Some of the Chinese export credit agencies put out annual reports but of course they're a little bit hard to understand and they're quite opaque. So we have to take our best estimates from there. And then separately, our office, the Office of Policy Analysis and International Relations, conducts a significant amount of research into Chinese export credit activity. And we actually had a great panel at the annual conference just recently with more information on that where we do a lot of public web scraping to try and get as much information as we can on Chinese official export credit activity. And we also work with other partners within the U.S. government to try and get more information on that as well. So it's a work in progress, but we've come very far in our research on that. And we publicize it on our website as well to try and get input from the public and try to get as close to a solid number as we can, given the challenges and the opacity of the Chinese system. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thanks. MS. ROWLANDS: Sure. So the 2020 Competitiveness report was published June 30th of this year. There are a couple of major themes that I'm sure many of you are familiar with. First, EXIM was back in the market in 2020, but of course this was just a few months after a re-authorization and, of course, COVID was the main theme within 2020 and a lot of our efforts focused on that. So our presence was a bit limited in the medium and long-term space compared to our peers. The impact of COVID-19, of course, has huge implications on the economy. And one big pattern we were seeing in 2020 was governments across the globe were calling on the ECAs and the expertise they had to help alleviate some of the impact of COVID-19. And part of that was governments calling on their ECAs to use their financing domestically instead of purely with cross-border risks of export sales. And then thirdly, a big component that we were hearing from exporters and lenders and I've heard on this call and that we were seeing in our research was that foreign governments were really trying to draw on all different types of official financing, not just from their export credit agencies and not just standard export credit support. They were really trying to bring a whole government approach and found that this was kind of putting their best foot forward in terms of helping their industry be competitive abroad. Those are just some broad themes but we definitely encourage you to take a look at the report. It's available on our website. These are just a couple of key graphics. On the right is the official medium and long-term export credit activity that I think a couple of you have referenced and that I know is referenced today at our nominee hearings. And then on the left, this is a comparison of the export credit activity that's provided until the international framework for export credits, which is called the OECD Arrangement on Additionally supported export credits, governs the terms and conditions. And the goal is that the financing piece of competition is neutralized and exporters can compete on a level playing field. And so, as you can see, the amount of business falling under that each year has been steadily declining. It did jump up a little bit in 2018 but it has been slightly declining again since then. The orange is the activity outside the OECD framework, and that has been increasing, generally, over time. And then in terms of regions, you know, we've all heard on today's call about Chinese competitors and how competitive their official export financing has been. But we also heard a lot this past years from exporters and from banks about how some other countries around the globe and Europe, German -- Europe and Japan and Korea were also extremely competitive. So it definitely seems to still be a very competitive landscape across the globe. So in terms of next steps for all of you, the first deadline, which I know is a little ways off, but it's good to start thinking I about, we are going to be drafting the Competitiveness Report starting in 2020 -- sorry, 2022 -- and you all will receive a draft of that end of May. Usually there is then an advisory committee meeting at the beginning of June where you all will discuss the findings. And we will be there to present to you what the main points are. And then you all will put together a statement and work on drafting that and finalizing it before we put it into the final draft of the report that will be published on June 30th. So just a heads-up that that all will be coming your way. And we're happy to work with you on all of that. So hopefully I didn't take us too far overtime, but that's where I'll end right now. Thank you. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thanks so much, Cassie. I mean, incredibly valuable and important information. And, you know, it would be nice if actually somebody on the Hill read the report and realized how critical this infrastructure is for the EXIM Bank. We're now at that point where we want to open this up to committee discussion to get your thoughts and input. I've been taking a little bit of notes here. And one of the things that I think we should talk about is how this whole of government, I think at least three of you were talking about the need for greater corroboration between the EXIM Bank and the Department of Commerce and maybe even SBA. And, Gene, you know, you obviously have a wealth of experience there. But, you know, just for -- to open this up, I think as we look at kind of the traditional role that the advisory committee would have, which is to really provide advocacy and advice for the EXIM Bank. But I think this whole of government issue is an interesting one that could challenge us and may create, I think, some opportunity for this community to step out of some of the kind of traditional roles that we might have. But I'll just throw that out there. And I think those of you who have had this comment, if you could provide some feedback on how you see the advisory committee being involved in a whole of government approach. MEMBER CORNELIUS: To -- thank you, Senator. Before we get into that, and I want to hear this, I do want to acknowledge that EXIM Bank and the other U.S. agencies have been collaborating and intensifying their collaboration over the last five years. And we should acknowledge that. I think that we probably should look at how we are going to promote that. And I think that's the best kept secret in the United States. But there is and there has been and mostly lead by EXIM Bank this kind of effort. So I do want to acknowledge that right off before we go into details of that. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: There's no need to raise hands. Just pop in if you have a comment. MEMBER PINHO: Yeah, is that there's also DFC. And, you know, to give you an example, we're working on a project in Egypt which involves desalination. You know, on one end, EXIM is involved. On another end, DFC's involved. On a third end, the Ambassador to Egypt is involved. But there's really no coordination. And while I agree, things have been improving, there needs to be a much more coordinated effort in how this is presented because when we're competing with companies from other countries, their efforts are definitely much more seamless. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Yes, my question is how do you see this in, you know, the advisory board providing some guidance or direction here? MEMBER PINHO: I think strategies, you know, we can improve the, you know, particularly from an EXIM involvement, deals where there are multiple financings involved which involve, you know, for example, DFC on the long-term debt side. I don't know precisely the answer to your question, Chairman Heitkamp, but I'm just brainstorming. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Yeah, no. I'm thinking. MEMBER SHARMA: So I first mentioned we are trying to bring in the manufacturing and which is also the fastest way to use the existing facilities which will start manufacturing and use existing training people, people who are trained. And so this -- we actually put together to be present, taken up to Congress and other trade and Department of Commerce. We can definitely head with you and the idea how to take it up. Because, as I mentioned earlier, especially in these emerging markets, where we wanted to use user team and we wanted to, especially steel industry because, for example, my product, my company product which is the solar tracker and a lot of steel production here and also the -- we need some kind of production tax credit to make it very competitive to bring them the gap for the domestic market and also for the export. Export, because the Chinese are competitive user part, we are balancing between the technology. We have a lot of high technology software solutions versus the manufacturing. And this is very, very key. And where we had agreed to cross the EXIM requirements for EXIM financing. So we need everyone's help here to take it up with the Trade and Commerce. This is very, very important. And we actually, as a company, we put together, we wanted to really ramp up. And there's a lot of steel manufacturing in the country because, day-by-day, the solar requirement is increasing. It's becoming like a building material. And especially if you look at the latest logistics issues and 10,000, 20,000 per container, if we put together, then the local manufacturing becomes more competitive. But, and we have to balance it out so that effectively we can compete with the Chinese import and also make it cost-effective in the emerging markets. So we will -- definitely we can put together and take it up to Trade and Commerce with EXIM help because this is where we are creating a lot of pipeline for EXIM financing. So this is what -- maybe we can quantify them very clearly every -- because water power, we install in the overseas, how it is back reflected to the number of people -- job creation. And it's not only that. There's a lot of ecosystem, lots of states supporting industry for the main parts. But a lot of things are dead and we really put together -- we'll be happy to arrange a call with you and seek your help to take it up with the Congress and other people. MEMBER LAI: I'd just like to kind of share my perspective as a small business. And actually, to highlight your point, saying that there's a perception value for -- about how EXIM is a bank for large companies. So early on, when we just started exporting, I had attended a small business development center seminar about EXIM Bank. And, yes, during that presentation, my impression was that this is, you know, really for GE. This is not for my small business. I had no idea what they were talking about, some of the stuff that they were saying. So, but it is, after we experienced two of our customers defaulting on us that we went back and asked our state's EXIM -- or state's export assistance program. So Pennsylvania actually has a very robust export assistance program. And so then we asked them, you know, what do we do, like what can we -- what kind of options do we have. Then they re-introduced us to EXIM and, you know, sold us on the fact that it really was geared for small businesses. So we looked at it again and that's when we, you know, opened our eyes and said, oh, yeah, well this is obvious. So then that's when we signed up. And so I think working a lot more closely with some of the small business development centers, you know, through SBA, is going to be key just to get the word out there because, you know, most small businesses haven't heard of EXIM Bank, have no idea what they do. But for us, the, you know, the export credit insurance was key, and that's what we use. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: So your suggestion would be, Doctor, would be that we really think about how we market the EXIM Bank at least initially so that people like you see the opportunity. You could have avoided some challenges for you. But also, to really do that outreach within state export agencies and state small business organizations that are on the ground assisting local businesses like yours? MEMBER LAI: Yes. Yeah. And, you know, the people who are giving presentations for the SBA or just talking to small businesses on a very local level, I think those are the people that really need to understand a little bit more about EXIM so that they can, you know, make sure that it's fitting. Whenever the businesses come to them and ask for assistance for whatever problem, that they can refer appropriately when EXIM can help. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Yeah, and, you know, I'm thinking of 1 Million Cups which is a movement, you know, where people may not even see themselves as potential exporters. Barbara, did you have a comment? MEMBER LAI: Exactly. MEMBER BUCHNER: I did. Yeah, no, thank you so much. I think there was another hand up, but I'd love to go and word, okay. I think just -- I think if you're serious about these three Cs and also about like really investing in the technology of the future, then I think I have kind of three priorities that I would like to share. I think all is to continue drive innovation in the product. And I think this is virtually some of that, the whole of government approach then comes back. Because I think, by identifying in a more innovative products, there's also understanding how you can share risks. And you talked of, one of your colleagues talked about like some of the products you have that we're already sharing risks with others, I think, is really important. And then in the context of innovation or really this kind of coordination with other agencies would be really helpful. Then the second for me is identify the companies actually that, you know, are kind of bench recipients. And I think this is something I was very impressed by the presentation on the Competitive Report. Again, it's just very close to what I'm doing in tracking financial flaws. I look forward to doing more of that in that aspect. But I think an additional part would be -- really, it is for me very good to know who are the clients that you're looking for. Do we have a list of the top, you know, kind of top companies in our electric or like who are really the clients that we should kind of be guarded thing and so we understand that better. Then the third priority is like help sell products, also in fostering geographies. I think there is this outreach for it. Then we've both heard from the previous member around really how can we have more pro-active outreach about the services, about the products we offer and can we have matchmaking events again. I've heard also that from another colleague here. So I think this is kind of the three areas where I just feel that we need to do more. And the whole of the government approach certainly kind of underlines all of that. And kind of then I think we can become more specific in advice on that once we have figured out a little bit the elements under those. Thank you very much. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Thanks, Barbara. MEMBER CORNELIUS: I would like to add to that because that is excellent. But what we also need to do is look at market. Where are small businesses? Where do they fit in the supply chain? Where are they in the emerging markets? How are looking at Africa? How are we looking at South America? How -- where -- let's meet them where they are because we are talking about PR and extending to small businesses. But, you know, how do we get to small business? We have to meet them where they are. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Yeah. TJ? MEMBER RAGUSO: Yes, thank you. And I'm going back to the supply chain topic because we were talking about how do we raise visibility with customers, you know, that could benefit from EXIM. And one of the things we talked about is we tried to raise the issue more is this really supply chain engagement. You know, we could go to 30 companies. It's like Big 80/20 Rule. You know, these are -- back to companies don't know that they're really the exporter, you know, or an indirect exporter. The big exporters of record, they know who their supply chain is. They know who's an indirect exporter. And those indirect exporters, they don't know. A lot of them don't know that they could have more competitive financing terms if they were utilizing the EXIM. So if -- I mean if -- so if EXIM had maybe just even a more -- I don't want to suggest that there's been no focus, but a focused effort on supply chain engagement to just get through, again, 30 large exporters, and drill down and get into those names because those are the ones we already know are exporting. And because I will just tell you, I've been at the table. I've been in congressional offices before with someone that was sent there by GE and they had no idea why they were there. And they didn't know, you know, they didn't realize what EXIM can really do for them. They just knew that they were asked to be there by GE. And so it was just an interesting kind of breakdown that we -- and they still don't know. So I know it's probably easier said than done. I know there's privacy considerations. But, I mean, it would really help kind of add to the number of small businesses that are involved in benefitting from EXIM financing. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Why, yes, and you actually could reach out to those 30 largest and say, okay, will you sponsor a discussion with your supply chain. I mean, you know, you don't have to go looking. We should just be working with the people that we know are benefitting because they know, from our experience, that having a better educate supply chain is going to provide greater stability to the EXIM financing. Rodney, I think you're next? MEMBER FERGUSON: Yes, thank you, Senator. I wanted to go back just briefly the comments about the whole of government approach and some of the comments about the lack of coordination within a country in which an exporter was trying to put together a complex deal. It strikes me that it's one of those things that people talk about, the need for a whole government approach. No one argues with it. What I would suggest is we need to have a better idea of what that means, what that means in terms of actual steps that the various U.S. government agencies could take to create that whole of government environment, to make it more of a consumer-friendly consortium, if you will, on the other side of the deal in the countries in which the exporters are trying to work. And I would always argue for specificity. I would argue that we should look at a way to look at how the Germans and the Japanese and other European ECAs go about this. Well, not ECAs but how other competitive countries are going about creating their own whole of government approach. Because if someone asks me, I mean, we can all speak in generalities. I would really like to know what the Dutch are doing, what the British are doing, what the Germans are doing. And if there was any way that we could commission, through the various research agencies, that I would imagine that the bank has access to, a report, a study on how the most effective whole of government approaches around the world are working. I would -- I think that would be extremely helpful because then it would create a bit of a blueprint so that we and other agencies could take specific steps. And this would ultimately go probably to the White House by the National Security Council. What can we do to specifically create a better pathway to helping exporters? And I don't know if that's finding a friendly member of Congress who could commission a CRS report, whether the bank itself could initiate a report. But I think looking at our top five competitors and how they approach whole of government would provide a very valuable blueprint for us to improve our own efforts in that regard. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Well, and Rodney, I would argue that maybe that's the right lane. And we can talk to Cassie about that. You know, part of the Competitiveness Report shouldn't just be our products. It should be America's competitiveness and -- MEMBER FERGUSON: Correct. Absolutely. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Yeah, so, Daniel? MEMBER FERGUSON: Absolutely. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: We're going to try to get through everybody here. MEMBER PINHO: For me -- yes, thank you. One thing I was going to say, I think the topics I had written down were brought up. I think the EXIM Bank needs to have many portals that can feed in opportunities at a pop. I think the effort done with the Regional Export Promotion Program attracted me. It was great, making outreach more granular in the U.S. But I think what came up in previous conversations was the -- be where the clients are which goes together with the global business outreach. And, together with the topic or the (audio interference) I mean, if you look at EDC, if you look at SACE, if you look at the other ones, they have established offices overseas. They established these because a lot of the -- the decision of what's going to be bought is made by the buyer. And if they don't know if there's a finance opportunity for U.S. equipment, they're not going to go for it. And I agree, a lot of -- and normally these buyers and overseas, they might go to the commercial service or to another embassy or something that was going to see who provided -- who manufactured this in the U.S. They tend to have an idea to want to buy from the U.S. And then I think having someone from EXIM Bank understanding the industry would help. Another topic that came up that Barbara mentioned is innovation. This is very important for EXIM Bank. It was considered and won awards for innovation many times. And that's something and back when I spoke at Congress. And we need EXIM Bank to be in the forefront of innovation. It was a bank that came up with a bond, the medical equipment pilot program. Local cost always comes up at the Competitiveness Report which is an outstanding policy that EXIM bank has in order to counter its content limitations and more recently, now, in the capital markets. I think that can maybe continue with this innovation and look for -- listen to the market. What is needed from an ECA in order to grow and help U.S. exporters. I think that should be innovation. Again, now we focus on innovation and in the global outreach with possibly some foreign projects. I mean, maybe it's the lack of them in more regional -- broad, regional markets. But I think it's mimicking what the other ECAs are doing. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Terrific. Thanks. Denny? MEMBER HECK: Thank you, Madam Chair. I apologize for a digression of this spectacular substantive discussion. But I have a logistical question I really wanted to get in before we bailed out of here. I'll double-apologize if this has already happened. I'm just not aware of it. As appropriate, I would really appreciate it if schedule of upcoming meetings could be distributed. And I would also really appreciate it, as appropriate, if a directory of the relevant staff and our colleagues on the Committee contact information were shared with us. Again, I'm sorry for the digression from this conversation, but I'd really appreciate those two things. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Perfect. MR. VAN ES: And, Lieutenant Governor, we can definitely make sure that that happens. So, yes, on both requests. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Yeah. Mr. Sharma? MEMBER SHARMA: Hi. Thank you. I really wanted to follow up. Rodney made some excellent comments and I think added some more form to the question you'd asked me earlier. I think the -- and I'll just continue a little bit on the whole of government issue. I think the best approach -- you know, it's between EXIM and Department of Commerce from a lead or a point on this. Obviously, EXIM would be the most logical but the challenges are that EXIM Bank doesn't have a presence in the markets, the foreign markets, whereas Commerce does. So I think there has to be a lead coordinator in the Agency that takes point on the whole of government approach. And the second thing, really, from Rodney's comments is I think the bench-marking of other countries, successful countries' whole of government approaches is extremely important and should be integrated into the Competitiveness Report. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Terrific. I mean, I think there's enough work here for a full-time committee, I think. As we look at moving forward and I guess, Chris, maybe you can tell us -- you know, I've been trying to fiercely take notes, but I think it would be really good for the staff to synthesize, you know, kind of what you've been hearing from the Board. Maybe get us some feedback on whether you think those are appropriate roles for how we could use the structure of the advisory board to tackle some of these issues that you've been hearing as it relates directly to the, not criticism but to the concerns of young manufacturers that, you know, I went there and I didn't hear anything that was about me and I lost a bunch of money, when I now know that I could have gotten financing and had that secure. Those are things that I think the bank needs to hear and we need to be focused on. So maybe, Chris, you could, before we turn it over for public comment, maybe you can kind of respond to what you just heard. MR. VAN ES: Yeah, happy to and very happy to continue this dialogue. I think, you know, the -- I mean, from the president on down, I mean, building a whole of government approach to policy problems is a major priority. Hearing about it today, was on the Department of Commerce Industry Council call a month ago, heard similar feedback. Was in Eastern Europe last week, was hearing similar feedback from exporters who often will go up against Chinese competitors who are -- who've come in with kind of a one stop shop of a deal. And so I definitely agree and recognize that EXIM and our fellow agencies need to be better at coordinating, that we need to follow through on building a whole of government approach. I think, Senator, for the Committee, I think I and I think the staff at EXIM would welcome this committee's recommendations whether it's in the form of a research paper, a memo, agnostic on the format, but I think a great use of this committee's time would be to, I think, synthesize some of this feedback about what exporters are seeing and feeling and provide that back to us. And I think that would be, I think, a very welcome piece of feedback that we can offer to, not just here at EXIM, but to folks at the White House and other agencies. Because I think there's a lot of thinking going into this topic. I don't think there's a single silver bullet that we have to solve it yet. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: But the other question that I have, Chris, is what is your relationship with the export committees, the state export committees? Obviously, state economic development is a big part of this. And I know Denny has been charged with a lot of that economic development. You know, so what is your outreach and do you think it's robust enough? And is there anything that the advisory committee could respond to in that lane? MR. VAN ES: I mean, so I'll say a couple things. I think -- or I think it can be better. I would say I think it's patchwork good but not holistically good. I think we're good in some spots but not consistent enough. And so I think as we go forward, you know, and in the next few weeks we're going to be launching, hopefully, a new business development unit. I think we want to make sure that that's successful. And that's going to take operationalizing it internally. But I think that's also going to take help from you all to make sure that we know where those resources can be deployed. So I think there are several layers and several ways that we can tackle the problem. But I think the first thing that we're trying to do is put staffing behind it, put resources behind it because that doesn't exist right now. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Yeah, one of the kind of entry level, like if I can offer some advice, you know, calling or putting together a Zoom. We're all now used to this, right, used to this world but maybe do it once or twice with various groups and get immediate feedback before you formulate that kind of structure of business development. I think it would be really interesting as an introductory level to hear from those state credit agencies or those state entities. You know, I know in North Dakota we have a very aggressive -- or at least did have a very aggressive export agency. And it is incredibly helpful. You heard that about Pennsylvania, so where can we get good advice from state-based agencies on what EXIM could do and what whole of government could provide -- because they're on the ground dealing with these businesses. MR. VAN ES: Yes. And I think we would love to work with you all and improving on that. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Well I think this is something that's in Jenny's lane and definitely, you know, just throwing it out there that maybe the state and local folks should get asked what improvements they need for outreach before you kind of design a program. MR. VAN ES: Absolutely. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Okay. Are there any other comments? And I think, Chris, you'll follow up with something back to us. We're charged with meeting quarterly. Is that right? MR. VAN ES: That's correct. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Okay. But it doesn't mean if -- it doesn't mean that we can't get documents and comments to each other, you know, kind of continue this dialogue not in a formalized meeting but I think you've got a great group here who really -- MR. VAN ES: Yes. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: They're not checking a box. They're here because they care about the bank. They -- you heard, they care about their businesses and they see a real opportunity to kind of create stability here for the bank. So let's use these folks. They signed up. They want to be engaged and it doesn't -- it's not just checking a box on a quarterly meeting. MR. VAN ES: Yeah, and I think one follow-on item that I think would be great to dig into is what kind of subcommittees we might want to form to look into some of these specific issues. I think there's a piece on fulfilling the mandates for the 2019 re-authorization that, Sandra, you and I had talked about briefly before this call. There is, I think, probably a set of recommendations that can come out of a whole of government approach both globally as well as in the States. And so I think to the extent that there are additional subgroups and subcommittees that you all want to form, I think we're very much open to that because I, and I think the entire team at EXIM, share your sentiment that there's a lot of opportunity for the Agency right now. And we want to lean in and make sure that we're successful, not just because we want to be successful when the next re-authorization comes around but including that. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Yeah. Well, I think we're at that point where we -- do we have any folks who want to comment from the public, Chris? MR. VAN ES: So I'll ask India, from my team to take a look and open this up for public comment. And we'll just give 30 seconds or so here. DIRECTOR BACHUS: Yeah, Chris, this is Congressman Bachus. I'd like to give a shout-out to Denny Heck. I'm glad you're now Lieutenant Governor and I bet you're a lot of staff here. And he served with the station on the Financial Services Committee and was a big supporter of EXIM during probably the most difficult time we faced. Denny, it's great to see you and -- MEMBER HECK: It was an honor to serve with you. DIRECTOR BACHUS: Thank you. MR. VAN ES: All right, India, do we have any comments from the public? Going once -- AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: You're muted, India. MR. VAN ES: Going twice. All right. AC CHAIR HEITKAMP: Okay. Well, again, thank you all for this very enjoyable and kind of exciting opportunity that we all have to grow American business and American competitiveness. We wouldn't be here if we didn't believe that the bank was a critical part of that infrastructure. And our job really is to provide the stability and the resiliency for the bank. But also, I loved the line about innovation. And I think that's a big part of it, is being innovative. I think we have a chance to be innovative on this committee and for its innovation there are at least prod innovation at the bank. So I look forward to our next meeting. And, Chris, we'll be in touch on subcommittees and future work. Thank you all. You're all wonderful. MR. VAN ES: Okay, thanks to everybody. (Whereupon, the above entitled matter went off the record at 4:06 p.m.)