Export-Import Bank deserves better than Scott Garrett

For those who haven't worked in manufacturing, it may seem as though only large corporations sell their products across international borders. Those working at and leading small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses, however, know the real story.

In the U.S., small and medium-sized businesses with fewer than 500 workers account for 97.6 percent of all exporters and 96.4 percent of all manufacturing exporters.

At MWI Corporation, a pump manufacturing company located in Deerfield Beach, Fla., I've witnessed the story behind the statistics firsthand. We made our first international sale in 1971, selling water pumps to customers in Jamaica. Since then, accessing international customers and markets has only become more critical to our business. Today, we're proud to have pump systems operating in over 50 countries.

To sell our systems across the globe, MWI relies on the Export-Import Bank. Between 1983 and 2002, MWI obtained Ex-Im financing commitments to support export sales to Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela. These sales totaled nearly $221 million, money that went into hiring workers and paying employees back at home in the U.S.

Without Ex-Im, our sales to Zimbabwe and other developing countries would not have happened. That's why our business relies on Ex-Im, and why I oppose former Rep. Scott Garrett's nomination to lead this critical agency.