I 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5146 

To provide for certain actions by the International Trade Administration 

in order to increase exports by small- and medium-sized enterprises, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 29, 2016 

Mrs. BUSTOS (for herself, Ms. KUSTER, Mr. HIMES, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. 

BEYER, Mr. POLIS, Mr. KILMER, Mr. FOSTER, Mr. CARNEY, and Mr. 

KIND) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To provide for certain actions by the International Trade 

Administration in order to increase exports by smalland medium-sized enterprises, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Boosting America’s 

5 Exports Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 


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1 (1) COMMERCIAL SERVICE.—The term ‘‘Com2 mercial Service’’ means the United States and For3 eign Commercial Service of the Department of Com4 merce. 

5 (2) DIRECTOR GENERAL.—The term ‘‘Director 

6 General’’ means the Assistant Secretary for Global 

7 Markets and Director General of the United States 

8 and Foreign Commercial Service. 

9 (3) SMALL- AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTER10 PRISES.—The term ‘‘small- and medium-sized enter11 prises’’ or ‘‘SMEs’’ means— 

12 (A) subject to subparagraph (B), firms 

13 with less than 500 employees; and 

14 (B) in the case of a farm, a farm with 

15 fewer than 500 employees that generates less 

16 than $250,000 in income. 

17 (4) UNDER SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Under 

18 Secretary’’ means the Under Secretary of Commerce 

19 for International Trade. 

20 (5) USEAC.—The term ‘‘United States Export 

21 Assistance Center’’ or ‘‘USEAC’’ means a United 

22 States Export Assistance Center established by the 

23 Commercial Service to provide assistance to United 

24 States firms in exporting their goods and services. 


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1 SEC. 3. ASSESSMENT OF U.S. EXPORT ASSISTANCE CEN2 TERS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall con4 duct an assessment of the location of and services provided 

5 by the United States Export Assistance Centers in relation 

6 to the location of SMEs that are exporters or potential 

7 exporters of products or services. The Under Secretary 

8 shall, not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment 

9 of this Act, complete the assessment and submit to Con10 gress a report on the assessment. In the report, the Under 

11 Secretary shall identify those locations of USEACs that 

12 should be closed or moved based on low productivity, and 

13 those locations where a USEAC should be located based 

14 on need. 

15 (b) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Under Secretary shall 

16 implement the changes recommended in the report sub17 mitted to Congress under subsection (a) not later than 2 

18 years after the date of the enactment of this Act. The 

19 Under Secretary may establish up to 30 new USEACs on 

20 the basis of the report. 

21 SEC. 4. ACTIVITIES OF COMMERCIAL SERVICE. 

22 (a) INCREASED ACTIVITIES.—The Under Secretary 

23 shall take the necessary steps, through actions by the 

24 Commercial Service, to increase the exports, by volume 

25 and types of products and services, by small- and medium26 sized enterprises. In order to achieve that goal, the DirecVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:53 May 05, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5146.IH H5146

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1 tor General shall set goals and measure exports by SMEs 

2 in each calendar year, in particular exports by SMEs that 

3 had not exported previously, including measuring— 

4 (1) the total volume of exports, by product and 

5 type of services, including as compared to the vol6 ume of such exports in the preceding calendar year; 

7 (2) the number of non-exporting SMEs con8 tacted through recruitment efforts of the Commer9 cial Service; 

10 (3) the number of new SMEs exporting in the 

11 calendar year; and 

12 (4) customer service, such as response times 

13 and customer satisfaction, to SMEs that contact 

14 USEACs, in particular non-exporting SMEs. 

15 (b) PERSONNEL FOR USEACS.—The Under Sec16 retary shall ensure that the following is carried out upon 

17 the implementation of the report submitted under section 

18 3: 

19 (1) FUNCTIONS OF PERSONNEL.—Personnel at 

20 each USEAC shall identify and conduct outreach to 

21 potential exporters that are SMEs, attend relevant 

22 business conferences and trade shows to advertise 

23 the availability of the resources of the USEAC to 

24 SMEs, and perform other tasks designed to help 

25 non-exporting SMEs become exporters. 


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1 (2) ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL.—The Under Sec2 retary shall, in the case of those USEACs that the 

3 report submitted to Congress under section 3 rec4 ommends remain open, increase the personnel at 

5 those USEACs (by an average of not more than 5 

6 for each USEAC) to the extent necessary to enhance 

7 the ability of the USEACs, through outreach and 

8 provision of services to SMEs, to increase exports by 

9 SMEs, in particular non-exporting SMEs. 

10 (3) TRADE SPECIALISTS.—The Director Gen11 eral shall ensure that specialists in an increased 

12 number of areas are on the staff of USEACs in 

13 order to serve an increased number of SMEs. 

14 (4) COLLABORATION WITH OTHER ENTITIES.— 

15 The Director General shall ensure that staff at each 

16 USEAC is assigned to conduct outreach to and col17 laborate with entities of the States and other non18 Federal entities with respect to export promotion ac19 tivities designed to increase exports by SMEs. 

20 (5) ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL.—The Direc21 tor General shall ensure that USEACs have per22 sonnel dedicated to administrative duties as needed 

23 in order to enable other personnel to work more on 

24 client-oriented tasks. 


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1 SEC. 5. ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS. 

2 The Under Secretary shall submit to Congress an an3 nual report on the implementation of this Act, including 

4 the actions of the Director General under section 4. 

Æ 


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