Bipartisan Senate duo looks to help more small businesses sell goods overseas

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers, Sens. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) and Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), will introduce a bill Thursday aimed at helping American small businesses get loans to export their goods abroad.

The bill, the Regional Export Promotion Act, would make permanent a program within the Export-Import Bank that helps states and cities connect local businesses with financing opportunities for selling their goods overseas.

“Small businesses and local chambers of commerce are the backbone of Maryland’s economy,” Alsobrooks said in a statement. “Providing these businesses with the tools and financing they need to grow their market share and sell their products abroad will create more jobs and strengthen our economy.”

According to the statement, in the last 10 years the Export-Import Bank has financed $1 billion in exports from more than 60 companies in Alsobrooks’s state of Maryland, and 49 of those were small businesses. In fiscal 2024 alone, more than 1,200 of the 1,400 total transactions nationwide by the bank supported small businesses, according to the its annual report.

To help even more small businesses get access to loans from the bank, the Alsobrooks-McCormick bill would create a pilot program directing the bank to prioritize working with state and local institutions like local chambers of commerce and community banks.

The bill is a contender to be added to a larger reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, which gives credit financing to American businesses so they can compete in global markets. The authorization is set to expire at the end of the year if not extended by Congress.