Senate Commerce Advances Raimondo Despite GOP Huawei Concerns

The Senate Commerce Committee voted 21-3 Wednesday to advance commerce secretary nominee Gina Raimondo, likely setting up a floor confirmation vote in the coming days. Committee Republicans continued to raise concerns that Raimondo hasn’t unequivocally ruled out the Commerce Department rolling back restrictions on Huawei and other Chinese telecom and tech firms. The Wednesday vote was likely the last committee activity to occur with Republicans in control. The Senate agreed by unanimous consent Wednesday to approve a resolution to organize the 50-50 chamber, giving Democrats control of committee gavels.

“I expect that we will have a passing of the [Senate Commerce] gavel very, very soon” to lead committee Democrat Maria Cantwell of Washington, said lead Republican Roger Wicker of Mississippi just before chamber leaders’ announcement of the power-sharing deal. Commerce originally planned to vote Wednesday on committee rules and budget matters, along with Raimondo’s nomination (see 2101270062), but delayed those matters while leaders finalized the organizing resolution. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., is expected to take over the Communications Subcommittee gavel as part of the leadership shift (see 2101190001). Current subpanel lead Democrat Brian Schatz of Hawaii is giving up the role to pursue other leadership positions (see 2101290049).

Wicker was among the Commerce Republicans who voted to advance Raimondo but he said during the meeting that he remains “concerned about” her “reluctance to state unequivocally that she intends to keep Huawei on” the Bureau of Industry and Security’s entity list. “Keeping Huawei on this list is important for the security of our networks, and I urge” Raimondo and President Joe Biden’s administration “to make its position clear,” Wicker said. Raimondo told lawmakers Tuesday she sees “no reason” why BIS should end its restrictions on Huawei (see 2102020078).

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, one of three Republicans who opposed Raimondo, pressed her during a January confirmation hearing on her Huawei views (see 2101260063). His office didn’t comment on whether he will place a hold on Raimondo over his concerns. That would be unlikely to significantly hold up her confirmation, since Senate Democrats could overcome it by a simple majority vote. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, another of Raimondo’s GOP opponents, said in a Fox News opinion piece that the nominee backs “doing business” with China, which “wants to see America lose.” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., also voted against Raimondo.

“We're blessed with" Raimondo "being both in the public sector and the private sector, and I think that will give her a great deal of insights to the many challenges facing our economy, the competitiveness of businesses, the challenges of the information age,” Cantwell said. She said she’s pleased Raimondo “understands” the Commerce Department’s policy priorities, including “NTIA’s spectrum management” role.

It “would be appropriate for us to review the current” FCC-NTIA memorandum of understanding “and consider suitable, mutually agreeable revisions,” Raimondo said in her written response to follow-up questions from Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. “It is my understanding that the MOU is nearly 20 years old, and it seems appropriate for us to examine lessons learned over these 20 years and see if improvements can be made.” Lawmakers seek an end to the spectrum fracas that arose among the FCC, NTIA and other federal agencies during former President Donald Trump’s administration (see 2010260001).

The Biden administration “would expect the FCC to properly coordinate with NTIA prior to the issuance of any decision implicating the use of federal spectrum. Such prior coordination hopefully will preclude the issuance of any decision that improperly impacts federal spectrum use,” Raimondo said. If an interagency dispute arises, “it is my intention, if confirmed, that such disputes would be resolved prior to the issuance of any FCC decision.” NTIA’s “technical and scientific spectrum analysts and engineers are among the best in the world,” so their “analyses and conclusions accordingly should be given extraordinary weight,” Raimondo said. “If NTIA concludes that its own independent, scientific judgments control on a particular matter, then NTIA should exercise such.”