U.S. Senate confirms Raimondo to head Commerce Department

[March 03, 2021]    By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted 84-15 on Tuesday to confirm Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo to head the U.S. Commerce Department, the agency that repeatedly sparred with China during the prior administration.

Gina Raimondo, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's nominee to be secretary of Commerce, speaks during an event to announce members of Biden's economics and jobs team at his transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., January 8, 2021. Picture taken January 8, 2021. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/

Source: Reuters
FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Gina Raimondo, Biden's nominee for secretary of Commerce, speaks in Wilmington, Delaware
FILE PHOTO: Rhode Island Governor Raimondo testifies during a U.S. Senate committee hearing


Raimondo, a Democrat tapped by President Joe Biden, will oversee the Commerce Department and its bureaus, which have about 46,000 employees.

The department includes the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Census, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service and the Foreign Commercial Service. It also helps negotiate trade agreements and enforces laws on trade and national security.

At her confirmation hearing, Raimondo vowed to protect U.S. telecommunications networks from Chinese companies. But she refused to commit to keeping telecommunications company Huawei Technologies on a U.S. economic blacklist.

The Commerce Department under former President Donald Trump took aim at China on numerous fronts, adding dozens of Chinese companies to a trade blacklist, including Huawei, the country’s top chipmaker SMIC, Hikvision and drone manufacturer SZ DJI Technology.

In written responses to lawmakers, Raimondo said she had "no reason to believe" that the listed Chinese companies should not be.

"We should have no illusions about China’s objectives, which I believe are to undercut America’s longstanding technological advantage and to displace America as the global leader in cutting-edge research and development and the industries of the future," she said.

Raimondo inherits the Trump administration’s unsuccessful effort to bar U.S. app stores run by Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google from offering Chinese-owned TikTok or WeChat for download. The Justice Department last month put appeals of rulings blocking those efforts on hold pending a Biden administration review of the efforts.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and Dan Grebler)

[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.