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Rutherford, Bustos Introduce Boosting America’s Exports Act

December 16, 2019

Improves assistance for small businesses to export American-made goods overseas

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representatives John Rutherford (FL-04) and Cheri Bustos (IL-17) introduced the bipartisan Boosting America's Exports Act. This legislation would improve resources for non-exporting small and growing businesses to help them sell goods overseas.

"Small and emerging businesses are the lifeblood of the American economy," said Rep. Rutherford. "In an ever-growing global marketplace, we must ensure that American small businesses have the resources they need to stay competitive. That's why I joined Representative Bustos to introduce the bipartisan Boosting America's Exports Act. This bill would give small and medium-sized companies that are not currently exporting their goods the assistance they need to sell ‘Made in America' products around the world."

"Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and create two out of every three new jobs," said Rep. Bustos. "That's why I'm introducing the Boosting America's Exports Act to help small businesses and startup entrepreneurs reach their full potential by identifying opportunities to export American-made products to consumers around the world. As the middle class continues to grow globally, we want to make sure that this emerging market is buying American-made products while boosting our small businesses' ability to compete globally. By building an economic environment that helps businesses succeed, we'll strengthen working families in communities across Illinois."

The Boosting America's Export Act would: 1) Direct the U.S. Commercial Service to design metrics and set goals relating to new-to-exporting firms served by the agency's programs; 2) Bolster outreach to non-exporting firms, enhance collaboration with state and local export promotion programs, and hire additional trade specialists and administrative staff as needed; and 3) Instruct the Undersecretary of International Trade to conduct an assessment of whether U.S. Export Assistance Centers are optimally located in order to reach small- and medium-sized businesses and present a plan to Congress on how to optimize strategic locations.