Gov. Gina Raimondo: Nominee Currently: Wilbur Ross
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross led the department to take an active role in President Trump’s trade wars. He championed an expansive interpretation of U.S. trade law, enabling Trump to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum in response to alleged national security threats. The so-called Section 232 tariffs were deeply controversial and alienated major U.S. trading partners, including Canada.Commerce also was a key player in the president’s confrontation with China. The department put prominent Chinese corporations such as Huawei on an export blacklist, all but severing them from critical American-made components, an important step toward decoupling the world’s two largest economies.The Biden administration is unlikely to immediately roll back the Trump tariffs. But the department may put a greater emphasis on export promotion and, through its management of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, take a more proactive stance on climate change. Commerce, customarily considered a business community outpost, is unlikely to be among the first department jobs filled and the ultimate pick may depend on the demographic and political makeup of the rest of the Cabinet.
Gov. Gina Raimondo
Governor of Rhode Island
Raimondo has been Rhode Island’s governor since 2015 and previously served as the state’s general treasurer. Raimondo, who has often been at odds with major labor unions, also previously worked in venture capital.
Source: Washington Post Reported by David J. Lynch and Amy B Wang.
***************************
2021-01-20 Smithfield Urges Gov. Raimondo To Ease Coronavirus Restrictions
2021-01-08 Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo Tapped for Commerce Chief
2020-12-25 Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo criticized for flouting lockdown rules The Democratic governor was photographed at Barnaby’s Public House in Providence on Dec. 18 for a wine and paint event after instructing residents to obey a “pause” on social gatherings, the Washington Examiner reported. “Please, stay home except for essential activities & wear a mask anytime you’re with people you don’t live with. Together, we can turn our case numbers around,” she added. The day after Raimondo was seen eating out, Rhode Island’s Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the governor and other officials to go into quarantine, the Washington Examiner reported.
2020-18 How a Status Quo Biden Cabinet Pick Would Burn One of the few remaining unfilled slots in Joe Biden’s Cabinet is the commerce secretary. The oddball Commerce Department is a strange mélange of different agencies that don’t really fit together, but in the hands of someone committed to reviving U.S. industrial policy, it could prove fearsome and important.
Leaks to the press, however, have shown Biden flirting with the notion of doing something on the inexplicable/infuriating continuum, picking a Republican to prove his fondness for a party that still isn’t certain he won, or a Wall Street–friendly steward to build relationships with a business community that has already staffed much of his administration. In turn, Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Gina Raimondo have dominated the rumor mill.
It’s hard to believe that the business community needs yet another goodwill ambassador within the Biden administration. It’s even harder to understand why corporate executives (think Penny Pritzker or Wilbur Ross) are almost always floated for the post of commerce secretary. But adding Burns to the mix would be anything but apolitical. Given her legacy from her time atop Xerox, Burns could very well undermine Biden’s credibility on a number of his most important priorities, and bring with her a ton of baggage from some of the most high-profile scandals in the corporate world.
.
Keep Gina Raimondo out of Joe Biden’s Cabinet! Gina Raimondo has been a steadfast ally of Wall Street and corporate America throughout her time in politics: as state treasurer, she sold out her state’s pension fund to Wall Street hedge funds, whilst compelling a regime of cuts to benefits for retirees, over strenuous objection from the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the International Association of Fire Fighters, and others. A Koch-funded conservative libertarian advocacy group later tried to spread this policy nationwide.
.
progressiveissuesblog 