[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 2, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S969-S970]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Nomination of Gina Marie Raimondo

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to urge my 
colleagues to support President Biden's nominee to be Secretary of 
Commerce, the Governor of Rhode Island, Gina Raimondo.
  Many people know that Governor Raimondo was the first woman to serve 
in that position in her State, and she has made tremendous impacts to 
that State at a time when it needed important leadership. So we are 
very excited that the President has nominated her for this position and 
that she will put those same skill sets to work here in Washington.
  The mission of the Department of Commerce, at least according to its 
website, is to foster, promote, and develop foreign and domestic 
commerce. Well, I can tell you that she is going to inherit a big 
challenge because obviously our domestic economy is still reeling from 
the impacts of COVID-19, and certainly she needs to think about the 
continuing transition to a digital economy in an information age. The 
foreign economy that she also will be charged with trying to help and 
impact as it relates to the United States is certainly plagued by the 
same pandemic and the impacts of that.
  So we are looking for someone who can come in and help, with private 
sector experience, to really move the agenda of this administration 
forward. For me, Governor Raimondo's private sector experience really 
means a lot. She knows how to invest in new technologies and things 
that are going to help us grow jobs for the future, and she knows how 
to match up a workforce with those job opportunities that are also so 
critical as we move forward on many, many different policy issues that 
are going to usher in change.
  As Governor, she invested in workforce training and matching workers 
with relevant small business experience, called her Rhode Island job 
initiative. The program served more than 1,700 employers and 11,000 
people throughout the State. She was able to send her State's 
unemployment rates tumbling to a 30-year low simply by doing a really 
focused job of matching workforce training to the needs of those 
industries that were growing in her State. So I certainly appreciate 
the fact that she has that private sector experience in knowing where 
to invest and bringing people together, and she certainly created 
successful programs on matching the workforce for tomorrow.
  But make no mistake, the Department of Commerce is going to have a 
very challenging role as we try to deal with the impacts of COVID-19. 
One of the most important responsibilities, I believe, will be dealing 
with the sectors most hard hit by the COVID pandemic.
  I am glad that Governor Raimondo is a Governor of a coastal State 
because one of the most impacted industries, as we have seen, is the 
seafood industry, which has been affected greatly by COVID-19 since 
early January 2020 when the lockdowns in China and around the world 
impacted the seafood sector. U.S. seafood exports to China dropped by 
31 percent by January of 2020 and 40 percent by February of 2020. 
Lobster, Dungeness crab, shellfish--everything was experiencing severe 
declines, and west coast fisheries have seen as much as a 40-percent 
drop in revenue.
  Sustainable fisheries are important economic drivers in coastal 
communities. I know that Governor Raimondo gets that. She understands 
that commercial fishermen and the impacts they have will impact not 
just seafood processors, shipbuilding, and trade, but also our 
restaurant economy. Marine anglers took in more than 194 million 
fishing trips, which fueled our outdoor recreation and tourism economy.
  So I am glad that Governor Raimondo, from a coastal State, is going 
to come to oversee some of those key functions at the Department of 
Commerce, particularly at NOAA, and harness the incredible data and 
information that help us manage these economies, that keep them safe 
and keep them focused on science. I know she understands that, as 
Secretary, she can use those good scientific Agencies within the 
Department of Commerce to better understand the impacts of climate and 
the impacts of COVID and what we can do.
  We know in the State of Washington that just a little bit of science 
done at

[[Page S970]]

the University of Washington helped us immensely in saving our 
shellfish industry. We now need to do more for fisheries across the 
United States. We need to invest in things that I call salmon 
infrastructure to keep--as we continue to grow our economy and continue 
to move forward on infrastructure, that we are also keeping ways to 
return salmon.
  I think this is one of the most important things Governor Raimondo 
can do as Secretary of Commerce--restore the respect for the scientific 
process, the scientific community, and the important issues that are 
going to be at the heart of how our coastal economies are impacted by 
climate.
  I have invited Governor Raimondo to take one of her first trips to 
the State of Washington to see exactly how our State has dealt with 
these fishery issues. I know that the Presiding Officer from California 
knows how important the seafood industry is and the impacts to our 
coastal communities because of climate as well. We need a leader in the 
Department of Commerce who is going to help us mitigate and adapt to 
those impacts.
  I am also counting on Governor Raimondo to help us with our export 
economy, everything from our ports to farmers to aerospace. Exports 
mean jobs, and about one in four jobs in the State of Washington is 
related to trade.
  Frankly, I think she is a departure from the last President and the 
last Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross. I think he and the President 
spent a lot more time shaking their fists at the world community than 
engaging them on policies that were really going to open up markets and 
help us move forward with getting our products in the door.
  Ninety-six percent of the world's customers live outside of the 
United States, and prior to the COVID pandemic, half of the world's 
population had reached middle class. That means that is a big market, 
almost 4 billion people. U.S. exporters need to be able to reach those 
markets and to grow the U.S. economy and grow U.S. jobs.

  We need to work with our allies, like Europe and Japan, to meet the 
real challenges we face from China. We need to expand U.S. exports in 
other fast-growing markets around Asia and South America and around the 
world. The Department of Commerce has a key role in promoting those 
exports and helping our companies enter new markets, and U.S. 
commercial service officials are on the frontlines of these issues 
around the globe.
  I know Governor Raimondo understands the importance of this export 
market, and she understands that the Department of Commerce can play a 
very big role in it. I hope that she will get to work soon on working 
within the Biden administration to make this a big priority.
  I also want to say that I know she is going to, on other science 
Agencies within the Department of Commerce, play a critical role, 
everything from the National Institute of Science and Technology--a 
small Agency that doesn't get a lot of attention, but it is very 
consensus-based on standards and fostering growth in a number of 
industries that are so important to communications and manufacturing 
and public safety.
  So I hope that she will use, again, her private sector experience in 
knowing where to invest in new technologies to help us continue to grow 
economies like the space economy that we have in the State of 
Washington. We are very proud that, as commercial space travel has 
started to be a major focus of the private sector, it has grown many 
businesses and many jobs in our State in that area, and we want to see 
it continue to grow.
  But we need Governor Raimondo's leadership on the important policies 
that divide us on these issues. The U.S.-EU Privacy Shield agreement is 
such a negotiation. I know my colleague Senator Wicker, who has been 
very involved in these discussions and negotiations, knows exactly how 
important digital trade is, and Commerce is leading up these talks to 
resolve these disputes.
  We must ensure the continued free flow of commercial data between the 
United States and Europe. A lot is at stake. The U.S. and EU digital 
trade is worth more than $300 billion annually and includes more than 
$218 billion in U.S. exports to Europe. Every business that exports or 
imports or has a presence in investment in the United States or Europe 
will face difficulties if we don't resolve these issues and barriers to 
cross-border data transfer.
  So all of this is very big risk, and we want Governor Raimondo to get 
to work on this very quickly and help resolve these issues.
  The free flow of data between the United States and Europe is 
critical to 5,000 tech companies in my State and more than $2.8 billion 
of digital exports in our economy. So I am pretty sure that this is the 
same--as I said to the Presiding Officer, I know he gets how important 
digital trade is to the State of California and would like to see these 
issues addressed as well.
  So these are very big challenges for the Department of Commerce and 
the next Commerce Secretary to basically make sure that the impacts of 
COVID are dealt with in our economy and to usher in a new era of an 
information age by making the right investments and depending on 
science to help our key coastal communities that also have been greatly 
impacted, using and harnessing the aspects of NOAA and really bringing 
in the type of leadership we need at the Department of Commerce to 
resolve our problems as a new digital age emerges here on an 
international basis and continue to allow our economy to grow. I know 
she is the right choice. I urge my colleagues to support her 
nomination.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.