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S. HRG. 112–494 

THE ROLE OF EXPORTS IN SMALL BUSINESS 

GROWTH AND JOB CREATION 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS AND 

ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

AUGUST 11, 2011 

Printed for the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS 

MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana, Chair 

OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine, Ranking Member 

CARL LEVIN, Michigan 

TOM HARKIN, Iowa 

JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts 

JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut 

MARIA CANTWELL, Washington 

MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland 

JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire 

KAY R. HAGAN, North Carolina 

DAVID VITTER, Louisiana 

JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho 

MARCO RUBIO, Florida 

RAND PAUL, Kentucky 

KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

SCOTT P. BROWN, Massachusetts 

JERRY MORAN, Kansas 

DONALD R. CRAVINS, JR., Democratic Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

WALLACE K. HSUEH, Republican Staff Director 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

OPENING STATEMENTS

Page 

Shaheen, Hon, Jeanne, a United States Senator from New Hampshire ............ 1 

Ayotte, Hon. Kelly, a United States Senator from New Hampshire ................... 7 

WITNESSES

Johns, Hon. Marie, Deputy Administrator, Office of the Administrator, U.S. 

Small Business Administration .......................................................................... 15 

Felton, Wanda, First Vice President and Vice Chair, Board of Directors, 

Export-Import Bank of the United States .......................................................... 21 

Cox, James M., Regional Director, Northeast, Commercial Service, United 

States Commerce Department ............................................................................ 32 

Friedman, Richard L., President and Chief Executive Officer, Carpenter and 

Company, Inc. ....................................................................................................... 38 

Wivell, Dawn, Former Director, Office of International Commerce/International Trade Resource Center, State of New Hampshire ............................. 56 

Moulton, Thomas, President and Chief Executive Officer, Sleepnet Corporation ........................................................................................................................ 64

Preston, Grace, International Sales Manager, Secure Care Products, Inc. ........ 69 

ALPHABETICAL LISTING AND APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED

Ayotte, Hon. Kelly 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 7 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 10 

Cox, James M. 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 32 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 34 

Felton, Wanda 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 21 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 24 

Friedman, Richard L. 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 38 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 42 

Johns, Marie 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 15 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 17 

Moulton, Thomas 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 64 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 66 

President’s Export Council 

Letter regarding Transportation Infrastructure ............................................ 84 

Letter regarding Trade Facilitation Single Window ...................................... 87 

Letter regarding Ex-Im Financing .................................................................. 90 

Letter regarding Business VISAs .................................................................... 92 

Letter regarding 21st Century Trade ............................................................. 94 

Letter regarding SME Trade Capacity Export Assistance ............................ 99 

Letter regarding Benchmarking ...................................................................... 107 

Letter regarding IPR ........................................................................................ 109 

Letter regarding Services Data ....................................................................... 113 

Letter regarding Russia ................................................................................... 115 

Letter regarding Export Control ..................................................................... 119 

Letter regarding FTAs ..................................................................................... 121 
Page

IV 

—Continued 

Letter regarding Travel and Tourism ............................................................. 124 

Letter regarding Veterans Retraining ............................................................ 126 

Preston, Grace 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 69 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 71 

Shaheen, Hon, Jeanne 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 1 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 4 

Wivell, Dawn 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 56 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 60 
(1) 

THE ROLE OF EXPORTS IN SMALL BUSINESS 

GROWTH AND JOB CREATION 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2011 

UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS

AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP, Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:05 p.m., in the 

Third Floor Auditorium, University of New Hampshire-Manchester, 

400 Commercial Street, Manchester, New Hampshire, Hon. Jeanne 

Shaheen, presiding. 

Present: Senators Shaheen and Ayotte. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF THE HON. JEANNE SHAHEEN, A 

UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE 

Senator SHAHEEN. Good afternoon, everyone. Senator Ayotte and 

I are delighted to be here with all of you. Thank you for coming 

out on such a beautiful afternoon to join with us in talking about 

the importance of exporting to small business. 

I thought I would begin by just telling you a little bit about how 

today’s hearing will work, and then I will do an opening statement 

and Senator Ayotte will do an opening statement. We will then 

turn it over to our panelists. We have two panels today. As you can 

see, the first panel is seated already, so we will spend about an 

hour with them and then invite the second panel up to join us and 

we will then be able to question each of our witnesses after they 

have finished with their testimony and hopefully it will be an enlightening discussion for all of us. 

Let me also thank all of the witnesses who are here today, particularly those of you who have come from far away to join us on 

the panels. Of course, for those of you coming from Washington, 

you really ought to be paying us for getting you out of Washington 

and up to New Hampshire on such a beautiful day. 

[Laughter.] 

We are delighted to have you all here, and I will introduce the 

first panel and then Senator Ayotte and I will introduce the second 

panel before they appear. 

Let me also point out that this is an official hearing of the Small 

Business and Entrepreneurship Committee and we have members 

of the committee who are here with us who, again, work for the 

committee. We have Katie Elder, who is with Senator Landrieu, 

the Chair of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, 

and Matt Walker, who is with Ranking Member Olympia Snowe 

from Maine, and Monisha Smith, who is the Committee Hearing 
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Clerk. So we are delighted to have each of you here today, and they 

will take very good notes and this will be part of the record of the 

Small Business Committee. 

While I am doing my thanks, I should thank the University of 

New Hampshire for hosting us this afternoon. We are delighted to 

be here in this very beautiful facility. 

So with that, let me begin my opening statement and then I will 

turn it over to Senator Ayotte. 

I am really pleased to be chairing this hearing on small business 

exporting with my colleague, Senator Ayotte. We both sit on the 

Senate Small Business Committee. I think it is not surprising that 

both of New Hampshire’s Senators would be interested in sitting 

on the Small Business Committee because small businesses are so 

important to the economy of this state. Over 95 percent of our employers in the Granite State are small businesses and it is essential 

that we in the delegation focus on ways that we can support your 

companies to provide good jobs for the state’s residents. 

Of course, we all know that the last few years have been particularly challenging for small businesses in New Hampshire and 

across the country, and while many have weathered the economic 

storm of the last few years, too many businesses continue to feel 

the effects of the recession. Today we are here to focus on one area 

that has really been a bright spot for the national economy and especially for New Hampshire’s economy, and that is the opportunity 

to export. 

Last year, exports from American businesses increased by 21 

percent, contributing nearly half of the increase in our country’s 

gross domestic product. In New Hampshire, exporting has become 

an increasingly important and promising part of our state’s economy. Last year, New Hampshire companies set a state record for 

international sales and ranked first in the country in export 

growth. New Hampshire firms increased their exports by $1 billion 

last year alone. In a difficult economic climate, this new revenue 

has provided an important boost to many of our businesses. With 

95 percent of the world’s customers living overseas, there is tremendous room for growth in exporting. That is especially true for 

small businesses, because while over 40 percent of large businesses 

export, only one percent of small companies are engaged in exporting. So while New Hampshire is doing well, we have the potential 

to do even better. 

Accessing foreign markets remains a challenge for small businesses, but it is also a real opportunity. As I go around the state, 

many small businesses, small business people that I talk to tell me 

that trying to get into international markets can really be 

daunting, because unlike big companies, small firms simply do not 

have the resources that they need to navigate those new markets 

that often have complex rules and they are dealing with foreign 

cultures. Small businesses often also do not have the time or resources to identify the right global markets for their products, and 

many small businesses interested in exporting have a hard time 

getting the financing they need to make a deal happen. 

The services available at the state and federal level can play an 

important role in helping our small companies overcome these challenges. That is what we are here today to talk about. Federal and 
3 

state programs that provide export assistance have helped thousands of small businesses sell their products overseas. I am looking 

forward to hearing more today about the value of these programs 

and looking at ways that we can improve the services that federal 

agencies provide to our small businesses. 

Of course, we also need to consider additional ways to increase 

small business exporting. One common sense approach is to make 

sure that the Federal Government is not unnecessarily putting regulations in the way. For example, our export control regime remains a complex set of regulations that were designed decades ago 

for a Cold War environment. As a member of the Armed Services 

and Foreign Relations Committees, I have pushed to enact thoughtful reforms to our export control regime which better allow our 

businesses to compete in a global trade environment, and I know 

that the panelists we are going to hear from today are also working 

toward that end. 

At today’s hearing, we will take a look at these and other barriers to exporting that are faced by small businesses and examine 

new opportunities for helping them reach foreign markets. To help 

us do that today, as I said, we will hear from two panels. The first 

panel will discuss the resources that are available through the Federal Government and the ways that those programs might be improved and be available to the small businesses of New Hampshire. 

The second panel will provide a New Hampshire perspective. We 

will hear about the importance of exporting to the New Hampshire 

economy and about the experiences that our businesses have had 

as they have tried to work in international markets. 

As policy makers, our job is to focus on the areas of the economy 

that will help create jobs now and enhance our long-term competitiveness. Helping small businesses export is a bipartisan, common 

sense way to help create jobs now and put the United States in a 

strong position in the global economy. 

I look forward to a lively discussion and to hearing from our panelists. I will ask Senator Ayotte if she would like to make an opening statement and then we will introduce the first panel. Senator 

Ayotte. 

[The prepared statement of Senator Shaheen follows:] 
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OPENING STATEMENT OF THE HON. KELLY AYOTTE, A UNITED 

STATES SENATOR FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you so much, Senator Shaheen, for 

chairing this very important hearing today. 

I want to thank, of course, UNH for hosting us and I also want 

to thank each of our witnesses who have come here to testify today. 

We deeply appreciate your being here and taking the time, and all 

of you who have come. I see in this audience so many successful 

business people in our state, and we know how hard you work and 

your feedback means a tremendous amount to me and Senator 

Shaheen. We thank you all for being here today. 

With the Labor Department reporting last week that 9.1 percent 

of Americans were unemployed in July, Washington must fully 

commit to helping create an environment that is conducive to job 

creation. It is imperative that we put the right policies in place to 

enable businesses to hire and grow, and that includes eliminating 

onerous regulations and mandates and opening markets around 

the world for American businesses, especially our small businesses 

which comprise over 96 percent of all New Hampshire businesses. 

The economic struggles our country is facing have put the issues 

of exporting and free trade on the front burner, and that is why 

this hearing hopefully will be enlightening for everyone here today. 

Our two panels, comprised of government officials and small business exporters, will testify about how trade policies and programs 

are impacting firms that are trying to expand into foreign markets, 

home to 95 percent of the world’s customers. 

Our first panel includes representatives from three of roughly 20 

Federal agencies that are involved directly or indirectly in promoting United States exports. I look forward to hearing about what 

the government is doing to increase small business exports, which 

in 2008 accounted for 31 percent of all U.S. export sales. I am especially eager to examine these programs’ effectiveness and how the 

Administration is addressing barriers, like tariffs, regulatory challenges and intellectual property violations by other countries that 

make it difficult for small businesses to compete globally. 

While I am pleased that we have the representatives here from 

the Federal Government, I am also very eager to hear from the second panel, which includes New Hampshire businesses with real 

world experience in navigating the complexities of exporting. I look 

forward to garnering their input on Federal trade policies and programs and how we can be more effective in not only helping them 

to succeed, but in getting more small businesses to expand their 

operations into international markets. With less than one percent 

of all U.S. small businesses currently exporting, there is a tremendous opportunity for us to increase our efforts in this area. 

Last week when the Small Business Deputy Administrator Marie 

Johns, who we are so fortunate to have here with us today, stopped 

by my office in Washington, D.C., we discussed the government’s 

role in helping small businesses increase exports. For instance, the 

Federal Government provides technical assistance, training, data, 

and information, financing in the way of export loans, matchmaking with sales opportunities abroad, and is responsible for enforcing our trade laws. I am interested to hear from both our panels, especially the small business exporters who have used these 
8 

services, on the effectiveness of what we are doing right now in the 

Federal Government’s assistance and how we can improve our efforts to increase our exports and job creation here in New Hampshire and across the country. 

I also want to say a few words about what Congress needs to do 

to enable our businesses to grow exports. When we return to Washington, D.C. after Labor Day, I am confident that we will be debating the Colombia, Panama, and South Korean Free Trade Agreements. By most accounts, the issue of temporary adjustment assistance will be worked out and we will finally be able to move forward 

and enact these crucial Free Trade Agreements, which will be significant and have a positive impact on New Hampshire’s economy. 

The U.S. International Trade Commission estimates that passing the trade agreements will increase United States exports by $13 

billion and create 75,000 jobs, all without one dime of new government spending. I am eager for the Senate to finally bring these 

agreements forward for us to debate them and to have votes on 

them. 

New Hampshire is well positioned to benefit from Free Trade 

Agreements. Our state exports to over 160 countries, and exports 

from New Hampshire were up 43 percent in 2010 over 2009, as 

Senator Shaheen mentioned. This increase was number one in the 

nation. We are all proud of that. Of course, we want to do more. 

This should be a source of pride for all of us, and our pro-business 

tax policies and mindset have set us apart from other states in this 

region, and it is very important, of course, that we preserve the 

New Hampshire advantage. 

However, the economy is not even close, to those of you who I 

know are here who are working hard in your own businesses, to 

where we know it needs to be. I read an August 1 report that the 

manufacturing sector had its weakest growth in two years. It was 

also reported by the Department of Commerce that factory orders 

in June declined 0.8 percent. I am concerned that these are alarming signs that the economy could possibly weaken further over the 

next year. 

Jobs are not created in a vacuum, and we need private sector 

economic growth to create jobs. Increased export sales will aid both 

of those things, but it is not a cure to everything that we need to 

accomplish. Uncertainty is killing jobs as businesses are keeping 

their money on the sidelines, and I have heard it from so many 

businesses, large and small, both in Washington and here in New 

Hampshire. I came across a Harris Interactive poll commissioned 

in July stating that 85 percent of small business owners believe 

that the economy is on the wrong track versus only eight percent 

who believe that we are on the right track. Furthermore, 49 percent of these small businesses claim that uncertainty is their top 

challenge to what they are trying to accomplish at the moment. 

When asked how reasonable Federal Government regulations are 

on small businesses, 9 percent said that government regulations 

were unreasonable, and 85 percent worried about the impact of 

Federal regulations and taxes on their ability to grow. 

However, I was encouraged to see statistics stating that, by a 

two-to-one ratio, small business owners project that America’s best 

days lie ahead. I wholeheartedly share this feeling. We need that 
9 

feeling of confidence to move forward, and now is the time for policy makers to provide small businesses the tools that they need to 

succeed, such as passage of the Free Trade Agreements and then 

to get out of the way and watch them thrive. 

Again, I want to thank Senator Shaheen, my colleague, for 

chairing this hearing and thank all of you for being here today. 

[The prepared statement of Senator Ayotte follows:] 
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Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you very much, Senator Ayotte. 

Now, I would like to introduce our first panel of witnesses. As 

I said, most of them have come from outside of the state today, so 

we are really delighted that each of you are here. 

First, I am very glad to welcome the Honorable Marie Johns, the 

Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration, to 

New Hampshire. As I mentioned, New Hampshire is a small business state, something I know you already know, and the services 

that the SBA provides here are critical. Ms. Johns has been serving 

as Deputy Administrator of this important agency since June of 

2010, when she was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, and 

that says something about her and her background. Previously, she 

served as President of Verizon Washington. Recently, Ms. Johns 

has been focused on the implementation of the Small Business Jobs 

Act, including the SBA’s trade and export program, so thank you 

very much for being here. I will just introduce the rest of the panelists and then ask Ms. Johns if she would give her testimony. 

I would also like to welcome Wanda Felton, who is the First Vice 

President and Vice Chair of the Export-Import Bank of the United 

States, the Ex-Im Bank. The Ex-Im Bank is the lead agency for 

providing financing and insurance for non-agricultural exports. 

Nominated by President Obama and again quickly confirmed by 

the Senate, Ms. Felton has served over 20 years—has 20 years of 

investment and banking experience—sorry—and alternative investment advisory experience, something very important these days. 

Next, I would like to welcome Jim Cox, the Northeast Regional 

Director for the Department of Commerce’s Commercial Service. 

Jim has over 20 years’ experience helping businesses sell their 

products overseas and has been the Northeast Regional Director 

since 2005. You can tell by all of these introductions that we have 

a wealth of experience here at the table. The Commercial Service 

is the lead agency providing assistance services for U.S. non-agricultural businesses, and just to show you how widespread they are, 

they have trade specialists in 107 United States cities and in more 

than 80 countries, and their specialists work with U.S. companies 

to help them get started in exporting. Today, Jim will provide us 

with more information about the services available through the 

Commercial Service. 

And finally, it is my distinct pleasure to introduce Richard Friedman. Dick Friedman is a very successful businessman and entrepreneur who is based in Boston. He has developed many hotels, including the Charles Hotel and the Liberty Hotel, for those of us 

who know Boston here. He is also working on a project here in New 

Hampshire, helping redevelop the Hanover Inn. And in his spare 

time, what little he has of it, Mr. Friedman serves on the President’s Export Council, which advises President Obama on ways to 

increase American exports, especially among our small and midsize companies. He is the Vice Chairman of the subcommittee of 

that group that focuses on manufacturing services and agriculture 

and serves on the subcommittee focused on small- and mediumsized enterprises. 

So I look forward to hearing your testimony, Dick, and it is very 

nice to welcome you to New Hampshire. Dick and I have been 

friends for a long time. 
15 

Now, I would like to ask Marie Johns if she would begin her 

opening testimony. We have asked each of our panelists to try and 

keep their testimony to about five minutes, so we hope that everybody can stay relatively, reasonably within that time frame. Thank 

you very much, and I am delighted to have you begin. 

STATEMENT OF HON. MARIE JOHNS, DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR, OFFICE OF THE ADMINISTRATOR, U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 

Ms. JOHNS. Thank you, Senator Shaheen, Senator Ayotte. I am 

honored to be here to testify this afternoon at this very important 

hearing. 

I am especially pleased to be in New Hampshire to talk about exporting because your state truly is leading the way with regard to 

international trade. As has already been mentioned, exports increased 40 percent in New Hampshire last year, which is the largest Statewide increase in the country. 

SBA plays an important role in supporting New Hampshire 

small businesses. Already in fiscal year 2011, our resource partners 

have assisted over 4,000 small businesses through loans and counseling here in your State. 

I want to acknowledge, Senator Shaheen, the fact that you have 

been such a strong leader on international trade issues, starting 

with your time as Governor, and certainly in your leadership on 

the Small Business Committee, and we thank you for your support 

of the Small Business Jobs Act. 

Senator Ayotte, it has been a pleasure to meet you and to learn 

of your important work and your leadership roles on the Small 

Business Committee in the Senate as well as the Commerce Committee, and we know that small businesses are well poised for continued growth through exporting here in your state and the SBA 

has an important role to play. 

With growth in technology and global connectivity, new markets 

are continually opening for small businesses. In fact, since 2003, 

America’s small business exports have grown about 80 percent. 

They now account for nearly $500 billion in annual sales. However, 

small businesses still only represent about 30 percent of the country’s exporting in our country, and of those small businesses who 

are exporting, the vast majority only export to one country. So that 

is why at the SBA our goal is to increase both the number of companies exporting as well as the number of countries to which they 

export. 

SBA has a variety of tools to support small business exporting. 

We have loan programs specifically designed for exporters and we 

have staff co-located with the Department of Commerce and the 

U.S. Trade Representative at 20 U.S. Export Assistance Centers, or 

USEACs, around the country. Meanwhile, as the agency that 

serves America’s small businesses, we support small business exporters through our traditional loan and counseling programs. 

The Small Business Jobs Act gave the agency new tools to increase our support for exporting. It elevated our Office of International Trade, increased the size of our international trade loans, 

and provided funding for export counseling through our resource 

partners. The Jobs Act also gave the SBA $30 million a year for 
16 

two years to award State Trade Export Promotion Grants, or STEP 

Grants, and we expect to have those dollars in the hands of states 

in September. 

In his first State of the Union Address, President Obama announced the National Export Initiative and his goal of doubling 

U.S. exports in five years. This is a very important goal. Increasing 

exports will strengthen our economy, both through our global competitiveness and create good jobs. In support of the NEI, SBA is 

working with our partners in the Trade Promotion Coordinating 

Committee, or the TPCC, to connect Federal resources and make 

them more accessible to small businesses. Our plan has four components: identify, prepare, connect, and support. 

The first step is identifying small businesses that are ready to 

export. SBA and our partner agencies have done extensive outreach 

to identify and motivate small business exporters. For example, the 

Department of Commerce and SBA have worked closely together to 

identify and refer new clients to the most appropriate resources. 

The second step in our plan is preparing these small businesses 

with counseling and technical assistance. To that end, Federal 

agencies have collaborated to, quote, ‘‘train the trainers,’’ unquote, 

offering export training for SBA resource partners. 

The third step is connecting small businesses with export opportunities. For example, in September of 2010, we launched a series 

of export matchmaking events, which have been very well received. 

Finally, the fourth step is continued support for these small business exporters with loans and counseling. This includes an increased presence at international trade shows, coordination of marketing materials, and ongoing outreach to lenders to encourage 

their participation in export financing programs. 

These efforts are having a real effect on the ground in states like 

New Hampshire. Peter Kermond, for example, owns Burnham Boat 

Slings in Hanover. They make uniforms for crew teams, boat covers, and other accessories. And last year, the company used two 

SBA Export Express loans to support a number of foreign orders. 

Thanks to the Small Business Jobs Act, those loans carried a 90 

percent guarantee, and the new orders are helping employ four 

full-time employees, three part-time workers, and Peter plans to 

bring on two more workers in the near future. Stories like that 

make me confident of our progress. 

Total U.S. exports increased 17 percent from 2009 to 2010 and 

we are looking forward to building on that success, and I would 

like to thank you both for your support, for hosting this important 

hearing, and I am happy to answer your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Johns follows:] 
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Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you very much. 

Ms. Felton. 

STATEMENT OF WANDA FELTON, FIRST VICE PRESIDENT AND 

VICE CHAIR, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, EXPORT-IMPORT BANK 

OF THE UNITED STATES 

Ms. FELTON. Thank you. Senator Shaheen and Senator Ayotte, 

thank you for inviting me here to testify in Manchester about how 

the Export-Import Bank is supporting small business exporters. We 

are very grateful to have this opportunity to come here and get the 

word out about how we can help more small businesses grow their 

exports and create jobs. 

I am honored to be here and would like to acknowledge each of 

you for your support of small businesses. The fact that you are 

hosting this event is evidence of your commitment to helping small 

businesses and your awareness of the role exports can and must 

play in job creation. 

Both Senators and Ms. Johns commented on New Hampshire’s 

export growth in 2010, so I will confine my time to talk about what 

Ex-Im Bank is doing to help small businesses across the country 

and how we are directly impacting small businesses in New Hampshire. 

In 2010, Ex-Im Bank supported $126 million in exports from 

New Hampshire. Of this amount, 89 percent directly supported 

small businesses. The amount authorized for companies in New 

Hampshire increased dramatically, from roughly $5.5 million in 

2009 to over $65 million in 2010. While these numbers are impressive, we are making every effort to do more. We are a small agency, 

but we pack a big punch, and we do it at no cost to taxpayers. We 

are financially self-sustaining. In fact, we have returned more than 

$3.4 billion of surplus to the U.S. Treasury in the last five years. 

With two months left in the fiscal year, we are on track to 

achieve a third straight year of record growth in our support for 

U.S. exporters. So far in fiscal year 2011, Ex-Im Bank has supported more than $31.5 billion of export sales and 213,000 American jobs in communities across the country. These numbers include more than 2,500 transactions that went to finance small business exports. 

Ex-Im Bank support for small businesses has increased 58 percent, from $3.2 billion in 2008 to a record $5.1 billion in 2010, and 

I would like to point out that it is important to recognize that these 

numbers do not capture indirect support for small businesses. We 

estimate that Ex-Im Bank provided an additional $1.7 billion in 

2010 to small businesses that acted as suppliers to larger companies which were exporting. Our support for these hidden exporters 

is not captured because the larger company is the exporter of 

record. 

We have a Congressional mandate to allocate at least 20 percent 

of our authorizations to small businesses. We have met this mandate in the past couple of years. While 20 percent of our dollars go 

to small businesses, small businesses account for more than 80 percent—85 percent, I am sorry—of our transactions. 

We work hard to reach out to small businesses. I said earlier 

that we punch above our weight. We have been able to do this with 
22 

new initiatives designed to increase the awareness of our programs 

through more proactive outreach, speed up our response time, and 

make sure we are offering products that really meet the needs of 

small companies. 

Without getting into detail, because we have packages available 

that will provide the specifics, Ex-Im Bank offers three basic products to help small businesses finance their exports. Direct loans, or 

buyer financing, will lend directly to foreign buyers to help U.S. 

businesses compete more effectively for sales. Working capital 

guarantees—we provide guarantees to banks so small business exporters can fulfill orders. And export credit insurance—this program allows small companies to extend credit terms to their customers by protecting them against the risk of nonpayment. Our insurance covers default for both political and commercial reasons. 

The ability to offer credit terms can help a small business become 

much more competitive in winning sales. 

These are our core products, but we have introduced many new 

products, again, to speed up turnaround time and to be more responsive to small companies’ real needs. We have introduced, for 

example, Export Express Insurance. Express Insurance streamlines 

the application process for export credit insurance and makes it 

easier for small businesses to finance their short-term receivables. 

Supply chain financing is targeted at those hidden exporters I 

spoke of earlier, small companies that need working capital to finance receivables that are due from larger companies that are exporting. Finally, Renewable Express is a streamlined process to finance exports involving renewable energy projects. 

With that overview, I would like to share a few examples of how 

Ex-Im Bank has helped small businesses in New Hampshire. In 

2010, we launched Global Access for Small Business. These are forums that we hold all over the U.S. to improve our outreach. We 

have held 20 so far. Senator Shaheen, I believe you attended our 

first one, which was held here in New Hampshire last January. We 

do these in cooperation with other city and state partners. Here in 

New Hampshire, we have worked closely with the New Hampshire 

Office of International Commerce. 

As I mentioned, we kicked off our first event in Portsmouth, New 

Hampshire, and that forum, I think, really does illustrate what we 

can accomplish. Bill Skelley of Skelley Medical here in Hollis, New 

Hampshire, stood up at this event and said his company could double his exports by offering open account terms. We processed his 

application in two weeks and approved $250,000 in Export Credit 

Insurance. Since then, we have increased the policy to more than 

$1 million and he is able to sell to India and Mexico. 

Land and Sea, Inc., in Concord manufactures dynometers, which 

is engine testing equipment that tests the horsepower of cars, 

bikes, airplanes, and the like. Land and Sea has used our working 

capital guarantee for two years. That company is exporting to Taiwan and Malaysia and the U.K. Exports now comprise almost 50 

percent of its sales, and that is up from 17 percent two years ago. 

Just this week, and you will excuse me, please, if I butcher this, 

Monadnock Paper Mills—— 

Senator SHAHEEN. Very good. 

[Laughter.] 
23 

Ms. FELTON [continuing]. In Burlington was awarded a policy 

through our Express Insurance Program. The company manufactures specialty paper and paper products and has been in business 

since 1819. It employs 325 people. It has three customers in China 

and Hong Kong, but has never extended credit before to its customers. Now it is able to meet the competition by offering credit 

terms in order to increase its sales. 

And finally, I will mention GT Solar of Merrimack. This company 

manufactures materials and equipment to produce the raw material for solar cells and other industrial uses. GT Solar exports to 

Asia, mostly China, and is a real success story because when the 

company first began using our products, it was a small business. 

Now, thanks in part to its growth in exports, GT Solar has graduated and no longer qualifies as a small business. That is the kind 

of impact we are looking to have, and I would like to just thank 

you again for having us here. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Felton follows:] 
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Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Cox. 

STATEMENT OF JAMES M. COX, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, NORTHEAST, COMMERCIAL SERVICE, UNITED STATES COMMERCE 

DEPARTMENT 

Mr. COX. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Senator Shaheen and 

Senator Ayotte, for the opportunity to testify today on the role of 

the International Trade Administration’s U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service and supporting the efforts to increase U.S. exports, 

assist in small business growth and creating jobs. 

The Obama Administration, in March 2010, announced the National Export Initiative, which sets as a goal to double exports by 

the end of 2014. We are on pace to reach that goal. Overall, in the 

first five months of 2011, exports of goods and services are up over 

16 percent from last year. U.S. goods and services in 2010 comprised nearly 13 percent of our national Gross Domestic Product, 

GDP, an increase from 11.4 percent the previous year. 

New Hampshire in particular highlights this success. The total 

value of goods and services exported from New Hampshire, as you 

mentioned, increased 43 percent in 2010, over 2009, to a record 

$4.4 billion. New Hampshire led the nation in export growth in 

2010. Through the first five months of 2011, New Hampshire merchandise exports were 12 percent higher than the same period in 

2010. 

As the key export promotion agency, the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service fosters economic prosperity, enhances jobs, and 

strengthens national security through a global network of our outstanding trade professionals. Our international network of about 

1,450 trade specialists provides comprehensive export-focused business counseling and supports the small- and medium-sized businesses, SMEs, throughout the United States. We are located in 

over 100 U.S.-based USEACs, U.S. Export Assistance Centers, and 

in 129 countries—excuse me, 129 embassies and consulates in 

nearly 80 countries. Last year, we assisted 5,600 companies in exporting for the first time, of which 85 percent were small- and medium-sized enterprises. 

I am very proud that we have here locally in New Hampshire Director Justin Oslowski and International Trade Specialist Taylor 

Little of our New Hampshire USEAC, located at UNH–Durham, to 

counsel local exporters on a range of issues focusing on promoting 

their products internationally, sales, and market development. This 

team works in close collaboration with the state and state agencies, 

such as the New Hampshire Office of International Commerce and 

other local organizations to deliver seamless and complementary 

services to small- and medium-sized businesses. 

One example of a company that successfully used our services is 

Sky-Skan, a Nashua, New Hampshire-based manufacturer. SkySkan focuses heavily on export opportunities for planetarium theater systems. The company learned of a large public tender and installation of a new theater system at the Copernicus Science Center in Warsaw, Poland. By participating in the Commercial Service 

Trade Winds Trade Mission Program to Poland in 2009, Sky-Skan 

benefitted from the customized matchmaking appointments ar-
33 

ranged by our New Hampshire and Warsaw offices using the Gold 

Key Program. The meetings included visits with officials from the 

Copernicus Science Center and other contacts in the industry. With 

innovative products and the Federal assistance provided, Sky-Skan 

won the bid and signed a contract for the installation of a new theater system in December of 2010. This single success resulted in 

a sale worth more than $750,000. 

In addition to companies like Sky-Skan, the USEAC in New 

Hampshire has worked with more than 1,500 exporters. In the last 

ten months, the office provided more than 300 individual counseling sessions for New Hampshire exporters, 100 of which have 

been in partnership with the state’s Office of International Commerce. 

The New Hampshire USEAC and its partners host regular 

events attracting both local and national audiences. Two locally 

held programs include the standing room only U.S. Export Controls 

training session. This event was so successful that the office will 

again hold a session in April of 2012. The second is a recently offered Value-Added Tax webinar focusing on the European Union. 

More than 90 companies were trained on international pricing and 

tax policies. 

As we look for more opportunities to increase the competitiveness 

of U.S. businesses, the Obama Administration has made passage of 

the pending agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama a priority, as Senator Ayotte mentioned. USEACs work with companies 

and partners in the communities to help them realize the benefits 

of existing trade missions and trade agreements. The New Hampshire USEAC guides local companies through the international documentation process. This counseling provides especially important 

guidance on issues such as the NAFTA Certificates of Origin. 

These are requirements for New Hampshire exporters to our two 

largest trading partners, Mexico and Canada. 

To increase the economic competitiveness of our businesses, the 

U.S. Foreign and Commercial Service is working diligently each 

day to connect those SMEs with the 95 percent of consumers living 

outside the United States. New Hampshire businesses have the full 

support of the U.S. Government in conducting and contacting potential exporters to global partners and markets. 

Again, I thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before you and I look forward to your questions. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Cox follows:] 
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Senator SHAHEEN. Thanks very much. 

Mr. Friedman. 

STATEMENT OF RICHARD L. FRIEDMAN, PRESIDENT AND 

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CARPENTER AND COMPANY, INC. 

Mr. FRIEDMAN. Thank you, Senator Shaheen and Senator Ayotte 

and members of the committee, for inviting me here today. My 

name is Richard Friedman, and I am President of a Boston-based 

hotel development firm working on a national level on a variety of 

hotel types. We have many hotels in Boston and some across the 

country, including the Charles Hotel and the Liberty Hotel, and 

right here in New Hampshire, we are now redeveloping the Hanover and the Dartmouth, my alma mater. 

I was appointed by President Obama as a member of the President’s Export Council. On that council, I am Vice Chairman of the 

Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Services, and Agriculture, which 

includes tourism policy. The President’s Export Council has some 

18 private sector unpaid members, many from large businesses— 

the chairman of Boeing, the chairman of Xerox, Ford Motor Company, UPS, Met Life—and a few small people like me, and the PEC 

also has eight members of Congress, five Senators and three House 

members, and some Cabinet Secretaries, as well, and we meet periodically. 

The PEC advises the President on increasing United States exports and competitiveness on an advisory basis. In his National Export Initiative, the President asked the council to explore methods 

to double exports over the next five years, or actually four to go. 

We have made great progress to this goal, and in 2010, exports increased 17 percent. One-point-eight trillion dollars of exports of 

goods and services represents the second highest annual total on 

record, and in May of this year, exports of services are up again 

14.9 percent to $505 billion. 

As a PEC member and hotelier, I have made it my personal goal 

to try to help our country’s tourism, hospitality, and air transit industries. Most importantly, as a small business owner, I have tried 

to help these businesses as a member of the PEC Small- and Medium-Sized Business Engagement Subcommittee. Increasing the 

export capacity of these enterprises is essential if we are to double 

exports. Small- and medium-sized exporters, SMEs, are typically 

credited with creating three out of every four jobs in the United 

States, and some SME exporters currently account for four million 

U.S. jobs, and they tend to grow significantly faster and larger 

than non-exporting businesses. 

We are making great strides in helping our SMEs to export. In 

2010, almost 5,600 companies exported for the first time, and their 

exports—and increased their exports abroad. Eighty-five percent of 

those companies were SMEs. But we have a huge room for improvement. Only one percent of exporters are small- and mediumsized businesses. 

In the last year, the PEC has adopted 15 letters and sent to the 

President in the areas of export controls, FTAs, terms of promotion, 

veterans’ retraining, benchmarking export promotion, lots of other 

things, as well. If these recommendations were to be adopted, we 

estimate we could increase U.S. exports by $630 billion. 
39 

In particular, I would like to talk for a moment about the tourism sector of exports. Nationally, one in nine jobs is related to tourism or travel. In New Hampshire, I estimate that it is probably 

substantially more than that as a ratio. It may sound odd, but 

when a foreign traveler comes to the United States, it is an export 

because they are bringing money here, spending it on all kinds of 

goods and services—hotels, travel, meals, shopping, et cetera. 

Northern New England is a very attractive international tourist 

destination. In the post-9/11 years, our national tourism performance has suffered very dramatically and we have lost 68 million 

visitors and $500 million in lost spending plus 400,000 lost jobs 

and $32 billion in lost tax revenues. 

The President’s Export Council is working closely with the President and the Administration in an attempt to reverse these trends. 

There are two primary methods by which this is occurring. One is, 

for the first time ever, is to advertise America as a destination, and 

the other is to shorten visa waiting times at our embassies and 

train our Border Patrol people and others in being more customer 

friendly. 

In the early years of the Obama Administration, the President 

signed the Travel Promotion Act—thank you, Senator Shaheen, for 

your support of that—which is a public-private partnership now 

just getting underway, yet to run their first ad, to promote travel 

to the United States. It is a very promising effort. 

Secondly, efforts are underway with the Department of State to 

reduce wait times to obtain visas at our embassies and in some 

cases to expand the locations at which travelers can obtain visas. 

Increased tourism has the potential to have dramatic impact on 

Northern New England in many regards. Hotel and travel destinations in Northern New England are well equipped to receive foreign visitors. For example, there is a great potential for people to 

come—foreigners to come here and watch the New Hampshire 

Presidential primary and see our democracy at work. 

Senator SHAHEEN. We like that. 

Senator AYOTTE. We love that, yes. 

[Laughter.] 

Mr. FRIEDMAN. Well, the hoteliers like it, too. On a national 

basis, if we just doubled the arrivals from the 36 visa-waivered 

countries, over $200 billion in spending would be generated. Tourism would be helped dramatically in New Hampshire. 

The United States is in a great position to increase our exports 

and foreign travel business. Currently, each Euro is worth $1.40, 

which makes our goods and services a true bargain for foreigners. 

Worldwide, people want to buy American, and now with our currency conversion levels, our trade policy makes us well positioned 

for export growth. 

Small- and medium-sized enterprises face unique barriers to exporting that require targeted action. The PEC’s SME Business Engagement Subcommittee has held roundtables around the country 

with small businesses to explore obstacles to exporting. The recommendations we came up with, adopted by the full PEC in March, 

fall into three categories: education, access to capital, and regulatory and cost burden issues. 
40 

Hundreds of state and local organizations and agencies are engaged in export outreach, but the findings by the SME Subcommittee indicate prominent and persistent education gaps and 

confusion among small businesses on a broad range of export 

issues. We recommend that the Federal Government provide catalyst grants to foster regional export development strategic planning 

among identified chambers, economic development centers, academia, state and local governments, et cetera. 

The second challenge that we face is lack of access to information. We recommend the development of new and maximizing of existing public-private partnerships and acceleration of expansion of 

on-demand educational resources on export trade channels such as 

trade.gov, YouTube, YouTube videos, export.gov, USTR, et cetera. 

The third challenge we face is a continuing misperception about 

the Free Trade Agreements, as the Senators have discussed, and 

there is significant disconnect in which the people do not understand what these Free Trade Agreements actually mean. We recommend continuing to work with all the International Association 

of Manufacturers and other people to get these bills passed. 

We also face a persistent lack of access to capital for small businesses. The current loan initiation process lacks transparency and 

takes too long. We recommend expediting the increase in delegated 

lending authority to existing trade finance lenders, as noted in the 

Small Business Act of 2010, conducting finance trade training to 

community banks to include receptivity to working with small exporters and working more closely with small businesses in training 

them to prepare documents for international transactions before 

going to their financial institutions. 

There is also a lack of support for young small businesses. We 

recommend establishing formal incubator programs at the Federal 

Government level that specialize in working with young SMEs to 

fund their working capital and export finance needs during the 

start-up process. It is equally important to develop these young 

businesses, and we have encouraged additional support of the 

Young Entrepreneurship Programs at community colleges. 

On the regulatory side, we have overcome cumbersome export 

compliance regulations, procedures, and policies. The President’s 

Export Control and Regulatory Reform Initiatives are a step in the 

right direction, but we need to create one-stop shops where small 

businesses would be able to find guidance on all matters related to 

exporting, including international trade regulations. 

We also need to address the prohibitive cost of intellectual property rights protection, which are inordinately high for small businesses. We recommend working within the World Trade Organization to improve the simplicity, speed, and cost of registering and 

maintaining international intellectual property. 

A final challenge deals with the rules of origin, which are complex and inconsistent, and it is difficult for small businesses to be 

export compliant or take advantage of the Free Trade Agreements. 

SMEs just do not have the staff to manage or the market power 

to leverage suppliers to gain proper origin information from their 

supply chains. We recommend that the Administration bring this 

to the attention of the World Trade Organization and other bodies 

to standardize their rules of origin. 
41 

As you can tell from these recommendations, small businesses 

are unique in their needs and ability. They often lack the resources 

available to large businesses, and, therefore, it is critical that specific programs are rolled out under the NEI with special consideration given to easing the burden on small businesses so they can 

unlock their full potential. 

The long and short is that America must learn to think of itself 

as an exporter, just like Germany, China, and Japan. We are 

uniquely positioned in the world to make this happen. We can be 

rightly optimistic about our trade and export potential, and the 

President’s goal of doubling exports in five years is worthwhile and 

realistic. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Friedman follows:] 
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Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you, Mr. Friedman, and thank you, 

each of you, for your testimony. 

Now, if we were in Washington, the way this would work is we 

would have a little timer and each of us would get about five or 

seven minutes of time to ask questions before we would turn. I 

would get that, and then I would turn to Senator Ayotte and she 

would also get that amount of time. But since we are not there, we 

thought it might work better here if we would just alternate questions, and so that is what we are going to do, so I will ask the first 

question and then turn it over to Senator Ayotte. 

Mr. Friedman talked about the President’s Export Council and 

some of the recommendations and the challenges that it identified, 

one of which is the bureaucracy as a hurdle to small businesses 

taking advantage of resources at the Federal level. Can I ask each 

of you if there are ways in which you all cooperate as agencies and 

if there are other ways in which you think you could better cooperate as you look at how we improve exports and access for businesses to exports? I will just ask, I do not know who wants to go 

first. Ms. Johns, would you like to go first. 

Ms. JOHNS. Certainly, Senator Shaheen. I was listening with 

great interest to Mr. Friedman’s testimony, which I think was very 

well done. What was particularly of interest were some of the 

issues that he outlined, and I was thinking about how the resources in the Small Business Jobs Act has actually given us more 

bandwidth to address some of those very issues, and I will certainly 

be happy to talk in greater detail about those. 

But the issue of coordination is a very important concern that I 

know you both have, and what I want to assure you is that the 

SBA works very closely with the Department of Commerce, with 

Ex-Im Bank, and we look at ourselves as part of a system that the 

Federal Government has in terms of resources to support small 

businesses in exporting. 

We—the business community is not monolithic. We are not focused on the Raytheons or the Lockheeds, who exporting is important to them, but we are focused on the Burnham Boat Slings, 

those companies, and they need different resources than do larger 

companies, and that is why the SBA’s participation in this important support for small businesses is so critical. And again, we 

thank you for the support of the Small Business Jobs Act because 

that allowed us not only to improve and give greater heft to our 

loan programs, it also gave us opportunities to expand our counseling and technical assistance programs and to create a stronger, 

independent Office of International Trade at the agency. 

I will give you an example of how we are coordinating through 

the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee. There is a Small 

Business Working Group which Karen Mills, the SBA Administrator, chairs, and it is through that mechanism that we are working closely with Ex-Im Bank, with the Department of Commerce, 

with the U.S. Trade Representative. We coordinate our efforts to 

make sure that we are providing that continuum of service for 

businesses, whether they are small, and as was mentioned, businesses who grow into larger businesses and then may appropriately 

be more in the domain of the Department of Commerce. 
47 

Mr. Friedman mentioned about the Rules of Origin and some of 

the difficulties that small businesses have in terms of getting the 

information they need. We have worked closely with our Federal 

partners on developing tools to address just that. The Free Trade— 

there is a Free Trade Agreement Tariff Tool that was unveiled in 

May of this year. We worked with the Department of Commerce 

and with the U.S. Trade Representative to develop that tool, and 

what it is, it is an online tool for small businesses to actually allow 

them to calculate what the tariff would be for their particular good 

or service that they would want to export, depending on which 

country they were planning to export. It gives information about 

rules of origin and addresses what is a big issue with getting more 

small businesses involved in exporting, and that is to demystify the 

process, to make sure that we have information at their disposal. 

We have a planning tool on our Web site, the SBA’s Web site, 

that is a workbook of sorts where small businesses can get access 

to a variety of pieces of information. They can store information 

and return to it, continue to update it. 

Those are examples of—I think strong examples of how we are 

coordinating with our Federal partners, not just to share information but to create real tangible tools, put them in the hands of 

small businesses to help them improve their opportunities to export, to grow their businesses, and to create more jobs. 

Senator SHAHEEN. And can I just ask for the benefit of our audience, how can people access the tariff tool and the other tools? Can 

they get that through your Web site? 

Ms. JOHNS. Yes. Well, export.gov really is that—Mr. Friedman 

also mentioned the need for a one-stop shop. In our experience, 

that is not so much a physical place, because, again, the needs are 

so diverse in terms of what the business is, what industry the business is in, et cetera. But we have created, again, in partnership 

with our Federal partners, export.gov, which is that virtual, that 

online front door, if you will, that can give a small business access 

to the plethora of tools that are out there to help them in the exporting arena. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Great. I do not know if either of you would 

like to add anything to—— 

Mr. COX. Senator, if I could give a more local perspective, here 

in New Hampshire, we are very pleased with the community effort, 

and by that I mean the U.S. Department of Commerce, USEAC, 

the Small Business Development Centers, the SBA, the states all 

work very much together, because we realize that for a small business, it is daunting. It is the Federal Government. How do I approach? It is the local government. It is the state government. 

So our colleagues are cross-trained. John Joyce with the Small 

Business Administration, Bruce Drossman with the Export-Import 

Bank, ourselves, will make joint calls. We will visit the company 

directly. If a call comes in and it is not appropriate for us, we are 

on speed dials with one another. So we try to get that information 

to the company as quickly as possible to resolve their questions. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. 

Ms. FELTON. Senator, I would add that all three agencies work 

very closely together and I think our various services and programs 

complement each other. I have been on a couple of different events, 
48 

even though I am very new to Ex-Im Bank, with both colleagues 

from the Commerce Department and the SBA. The Commerce Department, in particular, offers trade missions that will take companies abroad, help them with market research, help them 

matchmake and to find opportunities to sell their goods and services abroad. 

Once the company is at a stage where they have got a contract 

or a purchase order, if it is appropriate, they can then, in terms 

of their business life and where they are with respect to financial 

statements, et cetera, that would be available to make them qualified to participate in Ex-Im Bank’s programs, then they would refer 

that lead over to Ex-Im Bank and we would begin to talk about 

how we can help with our various programs. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. 

Senator Ayotte. 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you very much, Senator Shaheen. 

I actually wanted to follow up on Senator Shaheen’s question, because as I understand it, in 2009, the GAO issued a report that expressed concern over export promotion targeting services. Just 

thinking about it from a small business perspective, as I understand it, there are about 20 different agencies that either have a 

direct or indirect role in trade, and one of the announcements that 

the President has made previously, I think around the State of the 

Union, was to look at this, the fact that 20 agencies interacted in 

some way on these issues, and to come up with a plan to streamline the efforts of government, hopefully to make it easier for the 

end user and to make sure that we were being efficient as possible 

with the resources that we have. 

I guess I would ask to all of you, I know that Mr. Friedman mentioned one-stop shopping, if you could update us on whether there 

is a plan that is going to be brought forward that would streamline 

more or has looked at duplication. I think it can often be really intimidating for small businesses when they are trying to deal with 

multiple agencies, and I do appreciate what you, Mr. Cox and Ms. 

Johns, have said about the attempts at coordination, but I wanted 

to get your thoughts on what the President had announced at the 

State of the Union and also the GAO report. 

Ms. JOHNS. If I may, Senator Ayotte, I will start. Certainly, we 

are always looking for ways to operate the agency more efficiently 

and more effectively. As good stewards of the agency, that is our 

responsibility. And so we have had conversations with our Federal 

partners as well as OMB about how we can ensure that we have 

the most streamlined and most easily navigable process for small 

businesses. And at the SBA, we are particularly sensitive to that 

because we live and breathe small businesses and trying to serve 

their needs and we know that it has to be easy—the resources for 

the Federal Government have to be easily accessed, easily understood in order for them to be useful. Otherwise, they are not going 

to be utilized. 

And so the export.gov, for example, is a response to that issue, 

to ensure that we are coordinating our resources and the information that we have across the Federal Government and putting 

that—packaging that in a way that is more easily accessible for 

small businesses. 
49 

Senator AYOTTE. I would love to hear from all of you. Also, 

should we do the one-stop shop? Should we eliminate some of the 

agencies’ involvement to make it easier for small businesses to 

navigate and make sure that we are not duplicating some of the 

things that we are trying to accomplish? 

Mr. FRIEDMAN. If I may, Senator, I would support the idea of 

more one-stop shopping. In particular, in the travel and tourism 

business, there is a lot of conflict between, on the one hand, trying 

to advertise to get people to come here, then people trying to get 

a visa to come here, whether it is for business, they want to buy 

machinery or something in New Hampshire, they cannot get a visa 

in China and they do not want to come. Homeland Security may 

not welcome them when they get here. 

We are probably one of the only major countries in the world, 

frankly, that does not have a Minister of Tourism as a cabinet-level 

position, and tourism is actually the largest single industry in the 

world. So I think that simplifying these overlapping jurisdictions is 

very, very critical for actually small and—for all kinds of businesses, but big businesses can handle it because they have armies 

of people who can figure it out. 

Senator AYOTTE. Right. 

Mr. FRIEDMAN. But the little guy, he is just stunned. I got an 

email from a Congressman in Vermont who had some Chinese people who wanted to come and invest a substantial amount of money 

in Vermont and hire 50 or 100 people. They could not get a visa. 

Well, Commerce cannot help with that. Homeland Security cannot. 

Sometimes people get to our borders and they get turned away. So 

it is a bit of a morass, and post-9/11, we have had a very defensive 

view of ourselves as a country. 

Senator AYOTTE. Well, I appreciate that. Mr. Cox, I do not know 

if you wanted to comment? 

Mr. COX. I would just say, Senator, that the one-stop shop was 

the genesis of the Export Assistance Centers and the idea was that 

no one agency would really be the agency. All agencies would share 

equally to help exporters, so that exporters, small businesses could 

come in, and regardless of whose jurisdiction—we would not worry 

about that. We would get the answers as quickly as possible. 

Here in New Hampshire, there is a great tradition of that with 

the International Trade Resource Center, where six or seven agencies participate under one roof to help get that word out to the company. Again, we want to help one another because the company’s 

success is all of our successes. 

Ms. JOHNS. May I add one quick point, Senator Ayotte, and that 

is, particularly with the Department of Commerce, the way we 

have organized our thinking around this—I have talked about the 

identifying small businesses, preparing them, connecting and supporting, et cetera. The SBA is very focused on new to exporting, in 

other words, identifying those small businesses that are poised to 

be successful as exporters but need some preparation in order to 

really enter that arena and get going. So that is where we provide 

a very important set of resources because that is what we are built 

to do through our technical assistance and counseling programs, 

the various resources that we do every day for small businesses. 
50 

Then at a certain point it is appropriate to hand that business 

off to the Department of Commerce so that they can then pick up 

in their area of expertise, which is actually helping that—guiding 

that small business into a market outside of our country, et cetera. 

So this is—we are not taking a haphazard approach to this at all. 

We are being very thoughtful about how to play to our agencies’ 

strengths to make sure that we provide that seamless level of support for small businesses. 

Mr. FRIEDMAN. And, Senator, I would add that, to echo what was 

just said, that to the extent that the SBA is more involved in helping some of the small businesses that may be very young companies—there was some discussion earlier of an incubator-type approach to helping young companies that want to get involved in exporting, and these companies have a life cycle that they move 

through that make them get to a size and a stage of development 

that makes them more appropriate to then become eligible to use 

Ex-Im Bank programs, we can then pick them up at that point. 

The Commerce Department may have helped them identify market opportunities, to demystify some of what is keeping people from 

going out and starting to export. And then at some point, it becomes a company that is—that has an order, that has a market. 

We offer products that may be relevant to a company that is only 

selling in a single country or that has expanded and developed its 

exporting activity and now is reaching out and able to sell to multiple countries. 

But we at Ex-Im Bank also then help much larger companies, 

and so I think that we have a continuum along the not just—just 

along the life cycle and stage of development and size of companies 

that we serve and that that is useful. We do have—we do cooperate 

very effectively and we have, I think, on our Web sites the ability 

to direct our customers to each agency, as appropriate. 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you very much. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. 

One of the things that we wanted to do a little differently today 

is give an opportunity for those people invited today to ask a question, so we have gotten questions from a number of you in the audience and I am just going to read one of those. Some of the questions were not questions that were really appropriate for the members of this panel. They dealt with other issues. And so I just wanted to let anybody who had submitted a question that is not for this 

panel know that we are going to forward those questions to the appropriate Federal agency so you can get an answer to them. 

This is from Peter Antoinette, who I think is still here. I saw him 

earlier. He is the President and CEO of Nanocomp. There he is. 

Peter asked what specifically can be done or should be done to simplify or reduce ITAR export regulations. We addressed this a little 

bit earlier. I think you addressed it, Dick, as you were talking in 

your testimony. Would you like to expound on what you had to say 

a little bit about what can be done to make our export control regime more user friendly for the businesses of this country? 

Mr. FRIEDMAN. Well, I think it somewhat goes to Senator 

Ayotte’s question about single sourcing, single whatever, single 

window. I can actually read to you out of our letter to President 

Obama on this section. He said, a single window, which is a system 
51 

that allows traders to lodge information with a single body to fulfill 

all import or export related requirements, would reduce a major 

barrier to U.S. exports and deliver immediate measurable results. 

The World Bank estimates that, globally, it takes an average of 

six days to move goods to or from the United States. A one-day improvement in that time, export time for imports by means of a single window, would increase U.S. trade by $29 billion—— 

Senator SHAHEEN. Wow. 

Mr. FRIEDMAN [continuing]. And create thousands of new jobs in 

the United States—one day. So, on average, some stuff is held up 

in these—with this bureaucratic stuff for months, and so if we can 

speed up the process and expedite this, these are customers. They 

are not foreigners. They are customers. And if you are McDonald’s, 

you determine your success by how fast you can make hamburgers. 

So the speed is very, very important. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. 

Senator Ayotte. 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you very much. I think that goes to the 

overall question of what can we do to speed this up? What can we 

do, Mr. Cox, following up on what Mr. Friedman has said, from the 

Department of Commerce perspective? I know I am cosponsoring 

several pieces of legislation to make sure that the regulations are 

passed in Washington that impact small businesses, and all businesses, frankly, that there is more of an analysis of the indirect 

costs on business in terms of what the regulation does and making 

sure that we are trying to streamline more. Can you help us with— 

I hear this so much, whether it is ITAR or other areas, what Mr. 

Friedman has just described—what is being done right now and 

what more can be done to make it easier for businesses on the regulatory end. 

And I know, Ms. Johns, you have experience in the private sector 

on this, as well, so I would love to hear your thoughts on it. 

Mr. COX. In terms of export regulations, my understanding is 

that there are proposals for a single entry type of processing, and 

I believe the hope, and I am sure the expectation is to speed up 

processing of export applications and licenses. Right now, there are 

a number of agencies—the Commerce Department, the State Department, the Treasury Department—that get involved in those export licenses. Then they get involved in dual use issues and ITAR, 

as we have heard. So there is a recognition. I think your comments, 

your interest is helping to push this issue. 

At the local level, I would say that our initiative is to make companies aware of the regulations, bring our officials from Washington to New Hampshire and elsewhere so they can have conversations; we can have seminars and discussions on these issues 

so that the people on the front lines in our offices in Washington 

also go back and understand the issues that are being faced by 

New Hampshire exporters. 

Ms. JOHNS. Senator Ayotte, what I would add is that you are absolutely right. As a retiree from the telecommunications industry, 

I know a little bit about regulatory issues and how they can sometimes impede business growth. And so what we want to make sure 

is that there is an appropriate level of regulation. It has its place. 

But we want to ensure that we are looking constantly for ways to 
52 

not burden—to ensure that small businesses are not burdened by 

undue regulations. 

So a few things we have done at the agency. First of all, we 

started at home to make sure that our processes—we have gotten 

feedback. We have roundtables with small businesses around the 

country all the time, Administrator Mills, myself, other senior officials at the agency, to hear directly from small businesses, and we 

are taking that input and we are making improvements at home 

by streamlining our loan application processes, making sure that 

we have the touchpoints and using the new technology to allow us 

to be more customer friendly, if you will, for small businesses, and 

that work continues. 

Start-Up America is an initiative that the SBA has been very involved with, and we not long ago finished a nationwide tour in several key markets around the country to hear directly from small 

business owners and other key stakeholders about what were the 

regulatory burdens they were facing. That information has been 

compiled. We are in the final stages of preparing a report that will 

be shared across the government, and we will be working closely 

with our Federal partners to ensure that what we learned from the 

Start-Up America road tour, that those issues are being factored 

into plans that other agencies have for improving the regulatory 

process. 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you very much, and I know that both of 

us stand ready to work with you to make the regulations easier for 

our businesses, and hopefully we can speed that time up and really 

create more jobs here. 

Senator SHAHEEN. And one of the things that I think would be 

very helpful to everybody on the Small Business Committee, not 

just Senator Ayotte and I, would be to get copies of the council’s 

letters, like the one you just read from, so that we can see what 

your recommendations are and we can make sure that that gets 

into the record for the Small Business Committee and that everybody has a chance to see those. That would be very helpful. 

[The President’s Export Council letters appear in the Appendix 

on p. 84.] 

Mr. FRIEDMAN. I would be happy to send them to you. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Great. Thank you. 

Mr. FRIEDMAN. Sure. 

Senator SHAHEEN. I know that we have another panel to do, so 

I think, as interested as we are in what everybody has to say, we 

will do one more question each before we bring on the second 

panel. 

I would like to just ask each of you, just very briefly, if you could 

talk about what kind of outreach efforts you have, because one of 

the things that we are all struggling with is how do we make sure 

that businesses in New Hampshire and throughout the country 

know what is available to them. So if I could just ask you, each 

in one minute to talk about what you are doing at your agency to 

make outreach available. 

Ms. JOHNS. Should I start, Senator? 

Senator SHAHEEN. Yes, please. 

Ms. JOHNS. Well, Senator Shaheen, that is an area that is very 

close to my heart because it is striking to me how many businesses, 
53 

small businesses around the country, do not have a full understanding of what the SBA does. And so outreach is high on our 

agenda, to build awareness about the SBA’s resources, access to 

those resources, and we are particularly focused on exporting. 

As has been expressed in a number of very powerful ways 

through the panelists, we have got to change the mindset of small 

businesses in this country to let small businesses know that the 

tools are there, the resources are there for them to get involved in 

exporting. That is where the new markets are. And if we do not, 

we are going to have a huge detriment for our small businesses. 

So we are doing a number of events, exporter matchmaking 

events. We are involved with the Department of Commerce through 

the District Export Councils, the 56 of those around the country. 

We are using new technology through our newly revised Web site. 

We have an exciting contest that is underway on YouTube that is 

a cosponsorship with Visa, tell us your exporting story. That contest was just launched in August. We will be announcing the winner in November and that winner will get not only cold, hard cash, 

they will also get the benefit of Gold Key service from the Department of Commerce. 

So we are trying to be as creative as possible to use every opportunity through our headquarters efforts, but we have a very powerful tool in that the SBA has 68 field offices. We have a district 

International Trade Officer in each one of our district offices. We 

have an increased presence in the USEACs, 20 of those around the 

country, and we are intending to bring more online. 

So we are operating on all fronts to make sure that we are using 

the tools, connecting with partners, and using all networks that we 

can access to tell the story that, small businesses, now is the time 

to get involved with exporting. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Great. 

Ms. FELTON. Yes, Senator. We have a number of initiatives that 

we have launched in the last year or two in order to make sure 

that we are reaching out more effectively to small businesses, one 

of which I mentioned earlier the Global Access Forums. We have 

webinars. We have a new small business portal that will direct 

small businesses quickly to where to go on our site in order to find 

what they need in order to access Ex-Im Bank programs. 

Importantly, we have five regional offices. We are, as I mentioned, a small agency. We have a Northeast Regional Office. Bruce 

Drossman is here today and he can—he will be sticking around to 

make sure that he can talk to everybody who might have a need. 

But he is based in New York. He is responsible for handling our 

potential customers and developing leads in New Hampshire. What 

he will do is help determine what the need is that the business has 

and direct them to the right place. They may be insurance brokers. 

We, I should also mention, use a number of lenders who have delegated authority to process things quickly and Bruce would be able 

to help determine who would be the best fit for the customer’s 

need. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Great. Bruce, do you want to stand up so everybody can see you. Thank you. 

And we are going to ask all of the SBA people who are here to 

stand up, too. 
54 

Ms. JOHNS. I have a great team with me today. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Marie, would you like to introduce everybody 

who is here. 

Ms. JOHNS. We have got lots of people here today, so—our Regional Administrator, Jeanne Hulit, is here. Our District Director 

is here, Greta Johansson, and members of their team. Marilyn is 

our International Trade Officer for the New Hampshire District 

and doing a great job. Who have I missed? John Joyce, yes, is here, 

and our Advocacy Regional Administrator—when we talk about 

regulatory impediments, our Office of Advocacy at the SBA is a 

critical partner in that work and our Region I Administrator is 

here, as well. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Great. Thank you. So if you need help from 

any of these people, you know who to check at the end. 

Jim. 

Mr. COX. Senator, with that, I cannot let my own people off the 

hook. I want to introduce Justin Oslowski and Taylor Little, who 

are great partners here in New Hampshire—— 

Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. 

Mr. COX [continuing]. So they are our turn-to people. 

What I would say in response to your question is that we are, 

like SBA and Ex-Im Bank, always running events, always doing 

programs. We are very pleased to have a partnership with the 

Granite State District Export Council. John Sutton of Dartware is 

our chair of it, and the next panel, you will be hearing from the 

Vice Chair, Grace Preston. That is a public—it is a private sector 

voice of what is going on in the exporting community and it keeps 

us honest and gives us guidance and it helps us out in a great way. 

Events are being held all the time. I mentioned a couple of seminars and webinars. I am very pleased that your interest as Governor and your interest as Senator to lead a trade mission. It is a 

fantastic event where people can learn of the opportunities, whether they can attend or not. These markets are out there. Some are 

very easy and approachable for small companies that are just getting started. Some are very difficult and it is not transparent what 

goes on in those. So having an executive-led trade mission is very 

important and I would certainly invite Senator Ayotte, if opportunity presents itself, to lead a trade mission, as well. It does provide great opportunities for companies to see first-hand and it is 

quite a bit of work, as you are aware. Those are long, long days. 

Those are some of the areas that we focus on. Again, the partnerships, the working in the community, getting the counseling done 

through all the partners, just the great partnerships here in New 

Hampshire are key to us. 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you. 

Dick, I do not know if you want—— 

Mr. FRIEDMAN. I am not doing any coordination. I have no people 

here. 

[Laughter.] 

Mr. FRIEDMAN. But I just would say one thing. I think that the 

dollar is very favorable for trade. ‘‘Made in USA’’ is prestigious 

worldwide, and ‘‘Made in New Hampshire’’ is particularly prestigious because people think of New Hampshire, whether it is 

maple syrup or Segways or whatever—— 
55 

Senator AYOTTE. We would fully agree with that. 

[Laughter.] 

Mr. FRIEDMAN [continuing]. About quality. And people who export ought to blast on their boxes or whatever, ‘‘Made in the USA,’’ 

‘‘Made in XYZ, New Hampshire, USA.’’ There is a gigantic potential. We have got to learn to think. Can you imagine a Japanese 

company that does not think about exporting? I do not care how 

big they are. That is their business. We have got to get back to the 

basics, that 95 percent of the consumers are non-American. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Great. Well, thank you all very much. 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you very much. 

Senator SHAHEEN. We hope that you will stick around for the 

second panel and hear what some of the New Hampshire folks who 

are engaged in trade have to say. Thank you. 

So we are going to be switching over panels, and while we are 

doing that, let me just recognize two people on my staff who have 

worked really hard to put together this event, Chris Neary who is 

my assistant who works with the Small Business Committee, and 

Scott Merrick, who works with business interests here in New 

Hampshire, and Senator Ayotte, you may want to introduce folks 

who you have here. 

Senator AYOTTE. Yes. I want to introduce John Lawrence from 

my staff, actually from Washington, up here to help me. And then 

I have other members of my staff who are here, Susan Terzakis, 

who is here in the back, who also works in the New Hampshire office, and my State Director, Bud Fitch, is wandering around here 

somewhere, along with Steve Monier, who works on veterans’ 

issues for me, and Liz Johnson, who does press for me. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. 

I think two of our panelists are here. I do not know if Tom 

Moulton has—there he is. Thank you. We have you in the middle 

here. 

[Pause.] 

Senator SHAHEEN. We are going to go right into the second panel 

because we are running a little bit behind. We started a little late, 

so hopefully we can run over a little bit, but we do not want to run 

over too long since we promised folks that we would get you out 

as close to four as possible. 

But we are delighted to have a second panel of New Hampshire 

witnesses here, and they will help us explore some of the issues 

that were raised by the first panel, those challenges faced by New 

Hampshire small businesses as they try and export. 

We will hear directly from small business exporters about their 

experience, and I would like to begin by introducing Dawn Wivell, 

who anybody who has worked in exporting in New Hampshire 

knows that she is the former Director of New Hampshire’s International Trade Resource Center. She just retired recently. We are 

really going to miss her. But the good news is that she is now going 

to be in the private sector. 

I worked with Dawn very closely during my six years as Governor and I continue to rely on her expertise. So under Dawn’s 

leadership, I think everybody who has spoken today has talked 

about how well New Hampshire has done with regards to trade. 

Well, that speaks to all of the innovative businesses we have here, 
56 

but it also speaks to Dawn’s leadership and the work of the International Trade Resource Center. So thank you, Dawn, very much, 

for being here. 

Ms. WIVELL. Thank you. 

Senator SHAHEEN. I would also like to introduce Grace Preston, 

who is the International Sales Manager at Secure Care, which is 

based in Concord. Secure Care’s employees design, manufacture, 

and service systems that protect Alzheimer’s and dementia patients 

from wandering out of nursing homes. They protect infants from 

being abducted from a hospital maternity ward. Under Ms. Preston’s leadership, Secure Care has generated millions of additional 

dollars in revenue by exporting its products. Utilizing both state 

and federal resources, Secure Care has developed working relationships in Ireland and Australia and plans to continue expanding to 

new international markets. So, again, we are delighted to have you 

here, Grace. 

I will turn it over to Senator Ayotte to introduce Mr. Moulton. 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you very much, Senator Shaheen. It is 

my privilege to introduce Thomas Moulton, who is here today. In 

1989, Tom founded Sleepnet in Hampton and now serves as the 

President and CEO. Sleepnet has been making quality products 

that help hundreds of thousands of people around the globe sleep 

better, and we all could use that, right? 

[Laughter.] 

Senator AYOTTE. It has become an industry leader in mask innovation and development. Tom’s passion for American manufacturing and job creation has led to his success, and a lot of hard 

work. In two-plus decades, he has grown his company to a position 

where it exports to 30 countries in 14 languages. Sleepnet has 25 

employees, all in New Hampshire, and all his products are designed and assembled in the United States, with 65 to 70 percent 

of his sales coming from exports. 

It is a privilege to have Tom here with us today and we look forward to hearing your perspective, and I thank you. 

Senator SHAHEEN. So, again, thank you all for being here. We 

hope you will try and stick with the five-minute time limit, please, 

and if we can ask you to speak directly into the microphone so we 

can make sure we can record your testimony. 

And I will ask you to begin, Dawn. 

STATEMENT OF DAWN WIVELL, FORMER DIRECTOR, OFFICE 

OF INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE/INTERNATIONAL TRADE 

RESOURCE CENTER, STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 

Ms. WIVELL. Okay. Thank you, Senator Shaheen. Good afternoon, Senator Shaheen and Senator Ayotte. I would like to thank 

you for this opportunity to address this committee on the importance of exports to our economy and how we might boost U.S. exports to the level at which they should be. 

My name is Dawn Wivell and for the past 21 years I have proudly served as the International Trade Director for the State of New 

Hampshire. I resigned my post less than two weeks ago to launch 

an international business development company. Previously, I 

worked in the private sector, both overseas and in the U.S. in sectors ranging from oil drilling to import/export to manufacturing. I 
57 

also spent five-and-a-half years with the Italian government, where 

my job was to assist Italian companies to penetrate the U.S. market. 

During my two decades with the state, I have witnessed tremendous growth in exports, in export markets, in the sophistication of 

our industry base and our capabilities. As has already been mentioned, at $4.4 billion in sales, New Hampshire’s exports increased 

by 43 percent in 2010, reaching an all-time record, in addition to 

being the highest percentage increase amongst the States. 

The bottom line in dollars and cents, which is the number, I 

think, that is really exciting, is that New Hampshire companies 

sold over $1.3 billion more in goods in 2010 than they did in 2009. 

That number does not even account for the export of services, 

which we do a lot, and we are unable to quantify that due to available data. Moreover, our exports continue to increase, and as of the 

end of May, we are already up another 12 percent. I think in this 

current economy, that is pretty tremendous. 

One-quarter of all manufacturing workers in New Hampshire depend on exports for their jobs. Over 2,200 New Hampshire companies export, 88 percent of which are SMEs, which generate 42 percent of New Hampshire’s total exports. This is the ninth highest 

share among the States and well above the national average, which 

is about 31 percent, I think. 

According to the Tech America Foundation, New Hampshire has 

the third highest tech export concentration in the nation, accounting for 50 percent of total exports. 

Over the years, I have had the opportunity of working with a 

huge spectrum of companies in nearly every industry sector. I have 

worked with many very small companies that have achieved amazing results in the foreign marketplace, some of which would no 

longer be in business were it not for their foreign sales. As we all 

know, these entrepreneurs and innovators are the drivers of the 

U.S. economy, the job creators. Companies like them throughout 

the world are the drivers of the global economy. I can attest to the 

fact that the majority of economic development agencies around the 

world are equally focused on the development of the sector of their 

economy and they are hyper-focused on export-led growth. 

The term SME or SMB is a term that one can freely use across 

any language without translation. The difference is that the United 

States spends just one-sixth of the international average helping its 

small businesses to export. In actuality, a World Bank study found 

that each dollar increase in export promotion expenditures bought 

a 40-fold increase in exports. 

The reality is that there is tremendous untapped opportunity for 

our small businesses in the global marketplace. However, these 

businesses need a little help and they are competing with businesses around the world that get a lot of help. What they need in 

terms of assistance is access to buyers, market intelligence, capital, 

advocacy, reduced tariff and non-tariff barriers, reasonable export 

regulations, and technical assistance. These are all services that 

are offered in whole or in part by the federal export promotion 

agencies and by the state trade offices. 

However, over the past couple of years, budget reductions on the 

federal and state levels have severely hampered the ability to effec-
58 

tively provide these services. For example, the U.S. and Foreign 

Commercial Services provides programs that are essential to U.S. 

exporters, the most important of which is their customized matchmaking with buyers and partners, their ability to provide direct 

market intelligence, customized marketing events, and in-country 

advocacy. These are fundamental needs that are essential to 

achieving America’s goals of doubling exports in five years. Yet 

over the past few years, the U.S. and FCS has lost 239 staff positions, some overseas offices, and has undergone many budgetary 

constraints, including significant cuts to travel funds. 

The capacity to keep up with the ever-growing demand is a problem. Many of the states partner with the Commercial Service, and 

none more so than the State of New Hampshire. A recent trade 

mission to Canada led by Governor Lynch demonstrated to me how 

counterintuitive these reductions are. In many regards, Canada is 

the most important market to U.S. exporters, yet there is only one 

Commercial Officer covering the entire country and the local staff 

is and was so overburdened that they had to hire an outside contractor to support the needs of the mission participants. And this 

mission, by the way, consisted of 17 companies, most of which were 

new clients. 

Many state trade offices have suffered severe cuts to their trade 

promotion budgets, aggregated at about 20 percent. In the case of 

New Hampshire, the International Trade Resource Center, which 

not so long ago was a national award winning program serving 

hundreds of New Hampshire companies, has been reduced to one 

staff person with a zero travel budget. 

The State Trade and Export Promotion Grant Program, which 

came out of the 2010 Small Business Jobs Act, will provide muchneeded support to the state trade offices to meet the demands of 

their clients. While the program has seen delays and has been burdensome to some of the state trade offices, particularly with the recent requests for adjustments and resubmission, it is a boon for 

every state and is much appreciated. As a bonus, I appreciate that 

the STEP program may spawn some new and innovative programs. 

Another issue which continues to be very important and increasingly so is the fact that there is no mandate or directive in place 

which provides a real incentive for federal-state collaboration. The 

effectiveness of collaboration cannot be overstated. The organizations at the local level working in the field know their companies, 

their assets, and their weaknesses better than anyone. 

In New Hampshire, this collaboration, which has included the 

state office, the U.S. Commercial Service, Ex-Im Bank, SBA, 

SBDC, TDA, and MEP, has worked beautifully and is something 

that we became known for. It is quite confusing as to why this 

issue, which has been brought up so many times, has never been 

seriously addressed. 

Economists and analysts are predicting a significant global economic transformation over the next decade where emerging economies will account for more than half of all global growth, where 

economic powers will shift and the world economy becomes multipolar. Barring any major calamitous event, demand should continue to grow and may even be unprecedented. Accordingly, both 

opportunities and competition will increase. It is of the utmost im-
59 

portance that we consider the impact of investing and the potential 

for growth. In addition to the fact that export jobs pay more, it is 

a well documented fact that those companies that exported during 

the last couple of years were able to sustain their business, in great 

part due to their broader customer base. 

There are many reasons why exporting is actually becoming 

more viable, such as the rapid diffusion of information technology. 

In addition to being at the vanguard of innovation, the most compelling reason why we know that American SMEs can compete in 

the global marketplace is that they have already been successful in 

the most competitive market in the world. 

Again, thank you for this opportunity to speak, and thank you, 

Senator Ayotte, and I want to thank Senator Shaheen, in particular, as always, for all the many years of significant contribution 

you have made to small business and exports in particular. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Wivell follows:] 
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Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Moulton. 

STATEMENT OF THOMAS MOULTON, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF 

EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SLEEPNET CORPORATION 

Mr. MOULTON. Good afternoon, Senators. Thank you for having 

me. As my university professor taught me to KISS, ‘‘keep it simple, 

stupid,’’ and I will try to do that for you, to be short and brief but 

hopefully to the point. 

My name is Tom Moulton. I am the Founder and President of 

Sleepnet Corporation in Hampton, New Hampshire. Sleepnet is the 

leading domestic manufacturer of masks that sleep apnea sufferers 

wear nightly. For over 15 years, I have employed eight to ten manufacturing employees, 25 to 30 at some times, including engineers 

and business people as well. I do this in part in the spirit of patriotism and partly because it makes sound business sense. 

For the first time, however, I have begun to source components 

in Asia. While this does not affect the Sleepnet workforce, I am not 

blind to its impact on my New England area vendor base, whose 

staff will be less busy and pay fewer taxes as a result. 

I have been asked to comment on the role of exports in job creation for America. But before I can make my comments and observations, it is my opinion that we first must reflect on our past for 

guidance and then be willing to make changes in order to create 

a better future for all of us. I will talk about the manufacturing in 

particular. 

It is a vital and key economic component to any industrialized 

nation. Typically, for every one manufacturing job, seven other jobs 

are created. The key to America’s economic strength was created 

and embodied in manufacturing. From manufacturing, many other 

industries were created—finance, banking, insurance, real estate, 

trade, the service industries, et cetera. Make no mistake, it is powerful and impactful to an economy. If you doubt it and do not believe me, look what manufacturing has done for China and other 

economies over the past two decades. It is not rocket science. 

Just to segue for a second, on the front page of the Wall Street 

Journal today, there is quite a naval aircraft carrier that China has 

built, and quite frankly, you cannot do this if you do not have superior manufacturing. That is something to take note of. 

Unfortunately, over the recent decades, America has lost its competitive edge and is on a continuing downward slide. We have literally given away our technology and manufacturing jobs to others, 

and I find it sinful. 

We say, how did this happen? It is really not hard to figure out, 

and I often refer the scenario to my business colleagues as corporate treason. I say it was far from our objectives to wake up one 

day and find ourselves in an unfavorable business climate created 

by government, largely caused by overregulation, onerous labor 

laws, and over-taxation. They found themselves in an uncompetitive environment for business, so they went elsewhere with manufacturing jobs to improve their bottom line. The result is an ongoing catastrophe and a slow death for our nation. 

What can we do to reverse the slow death? Give manufacturing 

companies a good reason to come back to and set up shop in Amer-
65 

ica again. Where and how can the government help manufacturers? 

Get involved and get out of the way. Predictability, I feel, with government incentives and technology. America is known for its ingenuity. We can compete with cheap labor because we have better 

technology. At least, our country has been known to create cutting 

edge in technology in all different industries. 

For starters, I think the government needs to create meaningful 

and long-term incentives for manufacturers to reinvent in themselves, by giving opportunities for companies to invest in new 

equipment, so they can be competitive in our global economy. Look 

how some of the foreign car companies have set up manufacturing 

plants in the South and have done well. And if you look at Detroit 

now, it is abominable. Sixty years ago, Detroit was a shining jewel, 

and today it is a rust bowl. Very sad. 

Commit to some long-term R&D tax credits. Temporary incentives do not give companies ability to do long-term planning. Competing in business is a marathon, not a spring. Well-run businesses 

that pay taxes require predictability from their government on how 

they are treated. 

Education, and you can refer to the Wall Street Journal article 

of yesterday on how to close the skills gap, a very good article if 

you have not read it. It is excellent on education. There are about 

three million jobs available right now, but we do not have the skill 

sets to support them. 

As I referred to again in the past, numerous industries can point 

to their very existence as the result of creations, including computers, microwaves, and communication technology. To ensure the 

future viability of the future manufacturing workforce, new engineers and scientists are needed to create the next big thing, or 100 

things. It is critical we train that next generation of math and 

science majors in this country that want to and can stay here. 

Our immigration policy, our education policy and incentives 

around each will have an outsized effect on whether we have 1,000, 

10,000, or 100,000 new engineers, and the resulting multiple of 

manufacturing jobs that they will create ten years from now. There 

needs to be a comprehensive plan to ensure future manufacturing 

jobs. It is vital. 

And that is it. I appreciate the opportunity you have given me 

to give some personal thoughts on the matter. I am both honored 

and humbled to be asked to be here. I took my time away from my 

business today because I care and I really want to make a difference in my country. I love my country. I love the State of New 

Hampshire where I reside. I raised my family here. Like you, my 

motivation is to support the efforts to make life better for my fellow 

citizens and my country. I am an American, and I am proud to be 

one. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Moulton follows:] 
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Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. 

Ms. Preston. 

STATEMENT OF GRACE PRESTON, INTERNATIONAL SALES 

MANAGER, SECURE CARE PRODUCTS, INC. 

Ms. PRESTON. Senator Shaheen, Senator Ayotte, thank you very 

much for inviting me today, and I am really honored to be able to 

give a perspective from a small New Hampshire manufacturing 

company. 

Secure Care Products was founded in 1979 to provide health care 

facilities with radio frequency identification technology, RFID. We 

basically, as the Senator said, protect Alzheimer’s dementia residents from wandering out of a nursing home and we protect infants 

from being abducted from a hospital’s maternity ward. Secure Care 

Products is a wonderful example of a small New Hampshire manufacturing company, only one of which that makes the state so 

great. 

It is safe to say that Secure Care Products initially dabbled in 

the international marketplace, but it was not until the mid-1990s 

in which the international expansion took off. We would not have 

been able to do this without the assistance of both state and federal 

service initiatives. The New Hampshire International Trade Resource Center and the U.S. Commercial Service helped us in many 

ways. Such things as Gold Key matchmaking services, trade missions, sometimes coordinated through a joint state and federal effort, market research, and just plain general guidance have allowed 

Secure Care Products to successfully expand the overall growth of 

our company. 

I would like to share a few examples with you that help validate 

how Secure Care has benefitted from both state and federal export 

assistance initiatives. Secure Care established one of our most important international relationships in 1997 during a Gold Key 

matchmaking trip coordinated through the U.S. Commercial Service. Secure Care signed a distributor in Ireland. A Gold Key is a 

program offered by the U.S. Commercial Service that helps specific 

in-country partnerships at a minimal cost. 

Since then, this relationship has grown and flourished. Today, 

more than a decade later, this partnership has generated millions 

of dollars worth of revenue to Secure Care and helped our company 

hire and sustain jobs. Looking forward, we are now working together to further leverage the synergy between our two companies 

into growth outside of Ireland and further into other European 

markets. 

Within more recent years, another Gold Key matchmaking program established a new Australian partner in 2008. This relationship is not only producing sales, but today we are cooperating in 

new technology development together with the end goal of bringing 

new products and offerings to all of our current and future customers worldwide. 

To further quantify the importance of just these two relationships alone, Ireland and Australia, these two partnerships have 

generated approximately six percent of our 2010 annual revenue, 

so just two partnerships. 
70 

Even such programs that do not equate to immediate returns are 

critical to our future sustained growth of our company. In 2007, I 

personally participated in a trade mission with Dawn to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that was coordinated on a state level by the 

New Hampshire International Trade Resource Center. As you can 

imagine, there is an inherent cultural challenge as a businesswoman traveling into Saudi Arabia. The trade mission allowed me 

to successfully represent Secure Care, investigate market conditions, and develop critical relationships. The trade mission provided me a hands-on understanding of both market and cultural 

conditions that I otherwise would not have been able to access. 

At the beginning of this year, when the Saudi Ministry of Health 

mandated that all maternity hospitals in the Kingdom of Saudi 

Arabia implement an RFID solution like ours, I was well positioned 

with knowledge, understanding, and most importantly, the credibility in having traveled to the region to pursue the opportunity. 

Last month, we secured our first sale in Saudi Arabia, and the 

company has been chosen as one of two companies that were shortlisted from a field of 13 companies to bid under a Ministry of 

Health tender for 150 Saudi hospitals. I believe that our chances 

for such opportunities are strengthened by the support we receive 

from state and federal export initiatives. 

My last example is literally playing out as I speak to you today. 

We are in a highly competitive situation for a premier hospital in 

Doha, Qatar. We are competing against a Canadian company. With 

one phone call to the local U.S. Commercial Service Office, I have 

access to U.S. Embassy staff in Doha to provide advice and advocacy in hopes of securing the business. One phone call, that is all 

it took. It is our hope that the embassy can provide some lobbying 

efforts on our behalf, an effort that otherwise we would not have 

been able to accomplish on our own, and I would be happy to let 

you know how it turns out. I am still in the process of working with 

everyone. 

The challenges we face in our particular business are many— 

budgets, competition, specifically in our market, a very long sales 

cycle in hospital sales. As a small manufacturing company of less 

than 100 people, our resources are extremely limited. To have access to a wealth of information, in-country experts on local business 

climate, and those willing and able to lobby on our behalf is invaluable. While we are not the biggest company in New Hampshire, I 

believe that we are a solid example of what makes the New Hampshire business community thrive. 

In closing, state and federal programs such as the International 

Trade Resource Center, Small Business Association, U.S. Commercial Service, are valuable tools for small companies like Secure 

Care, which increasingly have limited resources available for developing knowledge and know-how and opening up markets overseas. 

If your company is not global, it is going to be tougher and tougher 

to survive the ever-competitive marketplace. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Preston follows:] 
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Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. Thank you all very much for your 

testimony. 

Ms. Preston, you had two great anecdotes about the help that Secure Care has gotten with exporting, and you talked about working 

with the Commercial Service and, of course, with the International 

Trade Resource Center. Were you able to take advantage of any 

other federal or state resources, and were there any lessons from 

your experience that you can share about collaboration within or 

among the agencies? 

Ms. PRESTON. It is evolving now, and as our deals get bigger and 

bigger, particularly working with the Ministry of Health in Saudi 

Arabia—I have actually just spoken to Bruce Drossman to see if he 

could come over and talk to us about financing, credit, insurance, 

that type of thing, because we are going to be looking at that as 

we move into bigger and bigger deals and as we expand. So it is 

evolving every day. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Great. Thank you. 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you very much. I wanted to follow up. 

I appreciate both these New Hampshire stories about businesses 

built here and wanted to get both of your insights, both Mr. 

Moulton and Ms. Preston, on what are the regulatory challenges 

that you are facing and how can we help cut through some of the 

red tape that you are facing? Both of us serving on the Small Business Committee—I also serve on the Commerce Committee—and I 

think hearing your perspective on the ground level would be helpful to us as we move forward. I have heard so many stories from 

small businesses in our state that are really concerned about wellintentioned things passed in Washington that, when put in application, do not always work, and I am sure, Ms. Wivell, you have insight on that, as well. 

Mr. MOULTON. The unintended consequences. 

Senator AYOTTE. Right. 

Mr. MOULTON. Exactly. Well, our product is an FDA-approved 

product and obviously you have to go through the regulatory approval and things like that, 510(k) processes. It is kind of good to 

get that expedited so it does not get worn down. That would be our 

perspective from my lens. 

That is what would help our business, so that we can basically 

try—because we have a lot of new products in the pipeline right 

now, and in order to get them through, some require 510(k) approval. Obviously, we go through all kinds of biocompatibility testing, materials, you know, do testing to make sure the products are 

safe and secure, as is typical of a low-risk product. But, to be able 

to get that process condensed so we can get the products to market 

is helpful, because the sooner you can get it to market, the sooner 

you can hire more people, and we do a significant amount of business overseas, so on the horizon, that is helpful. 

Not to segue out of the regulatory thing, but also, and I know 

it is probably a topic we certainly cannot discuss in great detail, 

but free trade. One thing that concerns me is that Brazil is a very 

big market. We want to get in there, but the problem with Brazil 

is they tax the product, like, twice to get it into the country. We 

have got a great product. They want it. But if I sell it for $50, they 
77 

are going to whack it another $50 and now they make me not competitive. So there is a lot of protectionism going on there. 

So I know there are all kinds of debates on free trade and open 

borders, but there has got to be some common sense there, too. 

That would be very helpful, if you can do those things. 

Senator AYOTTE. Great. Thank you very much. 

Ms. Preston. 

Ms. PRESTON. We are FCC regulated here in the U.S., and whenever we enter into a new country, we have to get approval to operate our radio frequencies in-country. So a lot of it is just working 

with the local regulatory authorities, but I have also asked U.S. 

Commercial Service and the embassies overseas to help us kind of 

push that process through. 

The other issue that I have is, because I am working and quite 

active in the Middle East is—I know it was mentioned in the previous panel—but getting visas for some people to come here. So we 

want to train people. We want to get them up and going because 

it is critical for us to have local representation in a market. If I 

cannot get people here to be trained on our products, it is going to 

be very difficult for us to have support in-country. 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you. I do not know if you had anything 

you wanted to add. 

Ms. WIVELL. Well, just very simple common sense would dictate 

that the export promotion agencies should work together with the 

export regulatory agencies. They completely work at cross-purposes, and you see some of the most ridiculous things. I am sure 

you have heard all of the stories where it just absolutely—the regulations do not make sense and they absolutely do not work together. They do not see the reason to work together. They think 

very differently and there is really absolutely no reason why they 

could not sort of see the benefits and detriments. Obviously, you 

have, again, heard the stories about all of the companies who lose 

sales to similar companies, competitors in other countries, because 

they do not have the same regulatory issues. 

And the visa situation, since Gracie brought it up—sorry, we call 

her Gracie—is a big issue. So you work with a company that has 

gone and made a great deal, maybe signed with a great distributor 

or is doing a joint venture, and they have not even thought that 

they are not going to be able to bring these partners over here to 

do training. So you might have worked on it for months and 

months, a year, and it is time to get over here, get people trained, 

and start really selling. You cannot get a visa. 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you very much. I appreciate your insight. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Dawn, in your testimony, you talked about the 

challenge of federal and state collaboration and that there is no requirement that agencies work together at the federal and state 

level. Were you suggesting that you think there ought to be legislation that requires that, or did you have other thoughts about how 

to make that happen? 

Ms. WIVELL. Well, since we have been talking about it for the entire 20 years that I have been in this job, my colleagues and my 

former colleagues all over the country, it is something that we talk 

about on and on and on, maybe it would take legislation. It seems 
78 

that it should not have to, because the whole point is that the collaboration is so important. We have talked about that several times 

today, the leveraging resources, working together, but especially at 

the field level. 

So if you want to talk in practical terms, in a lot of states, there 

is no collaboration. We are so fortunate that we have that in New 

Hampshire and it has been awesome. We are all really good 

friends. We are all cross-trained, as Jim Cox said, and we work 

really well at handing clients off. We work as a group, seamless operation. That is very unusual. We have had—when we started 

doing that, we had, I think, nine or ten states actually fly out and 

some federal people fly out and watch us because they could not 

understand how we did that. I do not really get that. 

But there is no—I have brought this up at other times when I 

have testified. There is no incentive. There is no directive. There 

is no mandate, you will work with your local partners. You will— 

this is part of what your job is, and somehow, I guess, you will be 

measured on that performance. But there is no mandate that 

comes from Washington, D.C. So you will find states—Pennsylvania is a very good example. The State of Pennsylvania office and 

the Department of Commerce office, they hate each other. They do 

not work together at all. It makes absolutely no sense. That is a 

huge exporting state. It has got a lot of great companies, a lot of 

opportunities. They do not work together. The territoriality, it does 

not make sense. 

So there has to be, I think, some kind of incentive, mandate, directive. I do not know why it would take legislation. I know you 

have got the Trade Promotion Coordination Council, and for years 

and years and years, the State Trade Directors have—we have a 

formal organization. We have been advocating for that a state person has a place on that council so that there is more coordination, 

and it has been ignored. 

Senator SHAHEEN. So do you think as the Small Business Jobs 

Act is being implemented and the STEP program that is part of 

that and some of the other focus on exporting that is part of that 

legislation, are there any ways as that is being implemented to encourage more of the kind of collaboration that you are talking 

about, do you think? 

Ms. WIVELL. I think that is a good point and I think that because 

the STEP grant program is specifically coming out of the SBA that 

at the local level, there is going to be more coordination. So I actually think that is a very good point. 

Senator SHAHEEN. And perhaps guidelines for awarding those 

grants could include some sort of points for states that are working 

closely or with their federal agencies. 

Ms. WIVELL. Yes. That is actually a really good idea. 

Senator SHAHEEN. I see Marie Johns shaking her head back 

there, agreeing. Thank you. 

Senator Ayotte. 

Senator AYOTTE. I very much thank you, Senator Shaheen. 

Just to follow up on that, since we, based on the discussion of 

the prior panel, when we have got 20 agencies, federal agencies, we 

have done a great job of coordinating in New Hampshire, and I 

know that you are a huge leader in that, and that has been the 
79 

New Hampshire way, that people actually talk to each other, that 

foreign concept. 

[Laughter.] 

But with 20 agencies at the federal level with some hand in export, import, trade policy, what can we—you have such a breadth 

of experience. I appreciate your feedback on making sure that we 

have a State representative on the council and others. So should 

we be making it more one-stop shopping, or from your experience 

over the years, what could we do better just to make sure that we 

are maximizing our resources, number one, and that we are making it easier for businesses, because I think it must be really confusing for a business to know which agency to start with. 

Ms. WIVELL. Yes. The one-stop shop, I am a huge advocate of 

that and that is what has worked so well in New Hampshire. I do 

not see any reason why you cannot have that in every state. Basically, that puts everybody under one roof, and it is how you manage it and how it functions that is important. So everybody should 

be cross-trained like we are in New Hampshire. I could get up and 

talk about Justin’s programs as well as he could talk about mine. 

So you have to have a place where companies, small businesses, 

could walk in and everything is there for them, whether they need 

marketing, whether they need technical expertise, they need education, they need financing. It was a beautiful situation when we 

could take a company by the hand and he would mention, ‘‘I think 

I might need money,’’ and say, okay, we are going to take you to 

the money guy, and, okay, we are going to take you to the Middle 

Eastern guy, all in one location. 

But everyone had to be physically working together and they had 

to be told that you have—there is no territoriality. There is no duplication of efforts. Everyone needs to work together. 

I am really—it has to work on a local level. It has to be in the 

field where you are actually working with companies. It is great 

that the TPCC and all that, but that is way up in D.C. and that 

is not down where the companies are. And each state is different 

and the industry bases are different. The needs of the companies 

are different. And so each state should be able to sort of customize 

it to the way the state functions. 

Senator AYOTTE. I do not know if our small business owners have 

any comments or experiences they have had with trying to deal 

with multiple agencies. 

Ms. PRESTON. I think, as an experienced professional, I have 

worked with the Trade Center for ten years now and I really feel 

sorry for the new companies that are going out there to try and export because they are not going to know how to negotiate those 

avenues. I have made the relationships. I know everybody at the 

Department of Commerce locally and I work with them quite frequently, Justin and Taylor, and I think it is going to be very difficult, and I am really sad that the budget was cut for the state 

because it was a great environment to call up and to go and have 

all these resources under one roof. I think it is a detriment to small 

businesses that are just getting out there to export. 

Ms. WIVELL. I just want to add that the USEAC situation was 

created to do the one-stop shopping, but it should include many of 

the other agencies that you mentioned. There are 20 agencies—the 
80 

MEP, SBDC, TDA is a really good one that is often overlooked. 

They have some very—OPIC is another one. So everybody, or at 

least the staff, should be trained or cross-trained on what they do 

so all the resources are there. 

Mr. MOULTON. And we work with Dawn and Taylor, as well, and 

they have done a great job helping us. Even though I would encourage some small businesses that maybe cannot afford to go, like 

MEDICA is one of the largest medical trade shows in the world in 

Dusseldorf every fall and they get a group, if you could not afford 

it, a booth, if you will, a trade show booth, and they could take a 

series of, what, eight, ten different small companies and they could 

share a space to make it more economical to go there, and the Gold 

Key program opens up opportunities to speak with, where they can 

make, like, a matchmaker—harmony.com, if you will—to get companies lined up with the right distributor and contacts in the countries and they have been very helpful. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. 

Senator AYOTTE. Export-harmony.com. 

Mr. MOULTON. Export-harmony.com, yes. 

Senator SHAHEEN. We are trying to get us back on time, so I 

think we have time for each of us to have one more question, and 

I would like to again use a comment that we got from someone who 

I think is in the audience, though I have not seen him this afternoon. Ray Boissoneau [phonetic], is he—he was here, I think. But 

he asked something that I think is very good that has been touched 

on. Given the recent unemployment numbers, what can be done to 

lower the cost of doing business for exporters? Any thoughts that 

any of you have about that? 

Mr. MOULTON. Well, one thing, if we could be competitive, I 

mean, it is about keeping your costs down. My main competitors 

are three particular companies. One is Phillips Medical over in the 

Netherlands. They bought a company called Respironics. Resmed in 

Australia, and Fisher and Paykel in New Zealand. They are all foreign companies. I have been forced to look to get sourcing because 

I have to compete with them on the cost of my product. They are 

the big 800-pound gorilla that I have to deal with. 

If I have to outsource outside the country, which I prefer not to 

do, to be honest with you. I really am doing everything I can to 

keep it internal. But if I have to be competitive, obviously, it would 

be helpful not to get the products that I am bringing in, or the components, getting taxed to death. If I can keep that as minimal as 

possible to cover the expense of doing that, that would be helpful, 

because then my end cost makes me more competitive, because 

they all have plants in China. I just refuse to go over there. I am 

not going to, as long as I can hold out. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Good. 

Mr. MOULTON. Yes. 

Ms. PRESTON. I think from my perspective, and I have a sales 

and marketing role, is to ensure that the initiatives and the programs that U.S. Commerce offers do not go up in price, because I 

have a budget that I have to stick to, and if I spend too much 

money here, I cannot spend too much money elsewhere. So I have 

got to make my budget, just like my household budget, last. If the 
81 

programs either go away or they get raised in price, it is going to 

be difficult for me to take advantage of that and grow our market. 

Ms. WIVELL. I was just going to say that, and it is really important that you do keep the costs down. There was a movement a 

couple years ago to raise the prices and it would have gone up from 

something like $700, the Gold Key cost, to $3,000. So then you are 

competing with the private sector. And it was actually done quite 

sneakily. The OMB was trying to get this cost—I am not going to 

go into all that. 

But the Trade Offices advocated to keep the costs down and we 

were successful in doing so. Maybe the ITAR registration fees, you 

might want to take a look at that. And patents, the cost of patents 

and the time that it takes to get patents through. I do not see Mike 

Barratt in the audience from Aricept, but he had a great idea the 

other day. I was talking to him and he was saying that it takes, 

like, five years and several hundred thousand dollars to get a patent and he was thinking, you do it in Germany, it is like no time 

at all and does not cost anything. He actually lost a lot of money 

to a company that he had a patent situation here. 

But he had a great idea of starting something like a small claims court for patents worth under, like, $25 million, and make it quick 

and easy and inexpensive. That would make them more competitive, as well. A lot of good ideas. 

Senator SHAHEEN. I think the good news on patents is that patent reform legislation has passed both Houses. I think there is an 

agreement to move that legislation forward. This has actually had 

real strong bipartisan support, so it has been one of the things that 

people have gotten behind, and hopefully that will make a huge difference. 

But thank you all very much. Thank you for taking time to be 

here and for your testimony and for your good ideas, and we will 

take back what we have heard today, share that with the Small 

Business Committee, and hopefully all of us be able to respond in 

ways that will make it easier for small businesses to export. 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank 

you, Senator Shaheen. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Let me also point out that the record of this 

hearing will be open for two weeks, so there may be other questions that we will submit. We will submit some of the questions 

that we got from the audience for answers from some of the agencies who have been represented here. 

Again, I want to thank—special thanks to all of the folks who 

have come from out of town, all of our witnesses from Washington. 

We hope you will stay overnight here in New Hampshire, enjoy—— 

Senator AYOTTE. Spend lots of money. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator SHAHEEN. Yes, enjoy what we have to offer. 

To all of you in the audience, thank you very much. We hope you 

will take note of everybody who represents one of the services that 

is available through our Federal Government, and if you need to 

talk to them, hopefully, they will stay around for a few minutes so 

you can have a chance to connect with them and get answers to 

any questions that you have had. Thank you all, again, very much. 

The hearing is adjourned. 
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[Whereupon, at 4:07 p.m., the committee was adjourned.] 
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