The Senate Commerce Committee voted 16-12 on Wednesday to advance President Donald Trump's nominee Howard Lutnick, billionaire chairman and CEO of Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, to run the Commerce Department.
All Democrats except Senator John Fetterman opposed the nomination. Lutnick said last week he has advised Trump to pursue across-the-board tariffs country-by-country to restore "reciprocity" to America's trading relationships.
Democrats voted against the nomination, and also sharply criticized Trump adviser Elon Musk's efforts to restructure U.S. agencies.
Lutnick is worth $1.5 billion according to Forbes. The Commerce Department is a vast government agency with 47,000 employees responsible for U.S. export controls, anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties, weather forecasting, fisheries, economic data and promotion of investment in the U.S.
Trump also has designated Lutnick as the leader of his trade policy, with oversight of the U.S. Trade Representative's office.
Lutnick said in written answers "the statutory responsibilities and authorities of the office of USTR remain unchanged," but added Commerce will play a "coordinating role with its interagency partners."
Lutnick told lawmakers Monday he will review year-old restrictions on firearms exports put in place by former President Joe Biden's administration, aimed at preventing foreign criminal groups from acquiring U.S. guns.
Lutnick said last week he wanted to improve U.S. access to Canada's largely closed dairy market and would work to protect the U.S. market from fisheries imports from Russia and China.
Following the U.S. financial market reaction to the emergence of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's powerful, low-cost generative AI model, senators asked Lutnick how he would maintain U.S. AI leadership.
Lutnick said DeepSeek had misappropriated U.S. technology to create a "dirt cheap" AI model and vowed to impose new restrictions on Beijing's technology access.
Lutnick said that Biden's legislation to provide $52.7 billion in subsidies for American semiconductor production, research and workforce development is "an excellent downpayment" to rebuild the sector in the U.S., but needs to be reviewed.