More than two years ago, the U.S. Chamber called for a national goal to double U.S. exports in the next five years. We were pleased President Obama echoed that goal in his State of the Union address the following January.

Increasing U.S. exports of goods and services can play a vital role in generating the millions of American jobs needed to replace those lost in the recession and to keep up with the needs of our growing population.

Moreover, overseas markets represent 95% of the world’s consumers and three-quarters of its purchasing power. Trade already supports one in three manufacturing jobs, and more than 280,000 small and medium-sized businesses export, accounting for nearly a third of all merchandise exports. The resulting opportunities are immense.

One small part of the administration plays an outsized role in helping U.S. businesses export — the U.S. Commercial Service. The USCS helps American small and medium-sized businesses tap export markets through its domestic operations. And they work closely with USCS staff in U.S. embassies abroad to help American exporters overcome the market access barriers that often shut them out.

House and Senate conferees are considering the FY12 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies appropriations bill as part of the “minibus” that recently secured Senate approval. One of the areas of divergence between the House- and Senate-approved bills is a $10 million difference in funding levels for the USCS.

The Chamber has urged the conferees to allocate the higher sum ($264.9 million) for the USCS because it delivers results. According to U.S. companies that have benefited from its assistance, the USCS helped generate $53 billion in American exports in FY11. This translates to $215 in export contracts for every $1 appropriated, and all told these sales supported approximately 300,000 American jobs.

However, the USCS remains badly underfunded. The USCS has already downsized by almost 25% in the last five years, reducing its staff from approximately 1,300 employees to just 1,000 today and ending its presence in many important markets. With many European and Asian countries investing far more in their own export promotion initiatives, the result is that U.S. companies are placed at a competitive disadvantage in critical markets.

Growth in U.S. exports is essential to our economic recovery, and many U.S. small companies will simply be unable to participate in global markets without USCS assistance. The Chamber will continue to press Congress to fund the USCS so it can continue to help American companies tap foreign markets and create jobs at home.