Shaheen’s Statement Following Farnborough Airshow Meeting with Granite State Small Business Owners

(Farnborough, U.K.) - U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, today met with New Hampshire small businesses attending the Farnborough International Airshow in England through the State Trade Expansion Program (STEP). A primary focus of Chair Shaheen's bipartisan Congressional delegation to the Airshow is to connect smaller, regional businesses in New Hampshire and New England with industry leaders.

"The opportunities and benefits provided to New Hampshire businesses as the result of trade are really important to the economy at home and abroad. It's an honor to co-lead a bipartisan Congressional delegation to the Farnborough International Airshow this year and meet with some exceptional Granite State small businesses in the aerospace industry," said Chair Shaheen. "In 2023, 2,000 firms from New Hampshire exported a record $7.6 billion worth of goods. Of those exporters, more than 85 percent were small and medium sized businesses. The numbers are great, but there is untapped potential for growth in New Hampshire, which makes it critical that we address access to resources that assist small businesses in finding new markets for their products."

New Hampshire's Office of International Commerce features New Hampshire exhibitors at the air show through STEP funding, which provides export assistance to small businesses. Chair Shaheen helped create STEP as a pilot program in 2010. The program was fully authorized by Shaheen's small business trade amendment, which was signed into law in 2016. Since its creation, STEP has awarded $235.5 million in grants and directly supported more than 13,000 small businesses' international expansion and export growth.

In May, the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship reported out legislation that reauthorizes STEP. The STEP Modernization Act of 2024 streamlines the application, reporting and compliance requirements, improves award consistency and transparency and establishes a formula that will replace the current competitive process for determining award amounts once appropriations reach a set level. These changes make STEP more flexible and easier to administer in order to increase the number of small businesses that can access and compete in international markets.

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