The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Nomination of Gina Marie Raimondo (Executive Session)” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the Senate section on pages S973-S974 on March 1.
The Department includes the Census Bureau, which is used to determine many factors about American life. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, said the Department is involved in misguided foreign trade policies and is home to many unneeded programs.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Nomination of Gina Marie Raimondo
Mr. President, I rise today to express concern over President Biden's nomination of Governor Gina Raimondo to lead the Department of Commerce.
We are a year into a deadly pandemic that originated in Wuhan, China. The Chinese Communist Party censored and disappeared doctors and journalists who were trying to tell the truth about how the coronavirus was spreading, and the Chinese Communist Party lied to the world about the nature of the virus. Over 2\1/2\ million people worldwide have died, including over a half million Americans.
The Chinese Communist Party's lies and censorship and propaganda didn't stop with the pandemic. They pervade everything the Chinese Communist Party does. Many of us are increasingly concerned that China is gaining access to American secrets using nontraditional all-of-
government--or even all-of-nation--approaches to espionage against the United States and our allies. That includes using companies like Tencent and Huawei, which masquerade as telecom companies when they are, in fact, government espionage operations. This is deeply troubling and dangerous.
China is, in my judgment, the greatest long-term geopolitical threat to the United States for the next century. Presidents in both parties have believed for decades that the United States could somehow turn China from a foe to a friend through trade and diplomacy or that allowing China into rules-based institutions would turn China into a rules-based country. Instead, sadly, the opposite has happened.
The United States, of course, can't sever all commerce with one of the biggest economies in the planet, but we must recognize China for the threat it poses to our national security. To counter the threat that China poses, we should do four things:
No. 1, we should protect ourselves from Chinese espionage and interference.
No. 2, we should insulate the supply lines of our critical resources from China, including by bringing them back to the United States.
No. 3, we should insulate all commerce from enabling the Chinese Communist Party's human rights abuses, including their systematic pattern of torture, murder, and genocide.
And, No. 4, we should vigorously compete to secure our interests.
On the first point, one important thing the Department of Commerce does is maintain an Entity List, which is a list of foreign parties and companies that engage in activities contrary to American national security interests. When a foreign company is put on the Entity List, they are barred from acquiring American technology.
In 2019, I led an effort to add to the list of companies, and in 2019 and in 2020, the Trump administration added several Chinese technologies companies to the Entity List.
When Governor Raimondo came before the Commerce Committee in January, I asked her if she would keep those Chinese technologies companies on the Entity List. She refused to make that commitment. In fact, she wouldn't even commit to keeping Huawei on the Entity List, which is unabashedly an espionage agency of the Chinese Communist Party.
In questions for the record, I gave Governor Raimondo a second chance to clearly and explicitly answer these questions, and yet she still refused.
Similarly, the Governor provided vague nonanswers or no answers at all in response to questions for the record on her ethics problems and her conflicts of interest as Governor.
As my colleagues know, nominees will never be more engaged, more transparent, or more forthcoming than during their confirmation process. That Governor Raimondo has refused to be any one of these speaks volumes to how she would act if confirmed as Secretary.
The fact is that there has been a rush to embrace the worst elements of the Chinese Communist Party in the Biden administration, and that includes Governor Raimondo. That is why I placed a hold on her confirmation, and that is why I will be voting not to confirm her to lead the Department of Commerce.
Governor Raimondo's nomination is part of a pattern. So far, every action, every nomination that we have seen from the nascent Biden administration, insofar as it concerns China, has lessened the scrutiny, has lessened the sanctions, has lessened the pressure on communist China. We are seeing a steady and systematic embrace of communist China, and that is dangerous. That is dangerous for our nation. It is foolhardy.
I recognize that there is a lot of pressure from Big Business and Big Tech to get in bed with China. That is profoundly contrary to American interests.
Now, we are just about 6 weeks into the Biden Presidency, and the Biden administration has already been keen on lifting the restrictions on Huawei since the very first week. Where will we be 6 months from now, a year from now?
Prohibiting the use of platforms like Huawei and safeguarding American technology from being exploited by Chinese espionage infrastructure are commonsense measures to protect American national security.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the understanding of the threat posed by communist China was more limited. It was more limited in Washington, where both Democrats and Republicans mistakenly believed China was our friend, and it was more limited internationally.
For 8 years in the Senate, I had been calling out the threat posed by Communist China--sometimes a lonely position in this town. But as events transpired the last year and the world saw the systematic pattern of lies, deception, and death coming from the Chinese Communist Government, eyes have been open, and the severity of the threat has been underscored.
Before this pandemic, our ally, the United Kingdom, was moving forward with plans to allow Huawei to install significant telecommunications infrastructure in the UK. The U.S. Government had vigorously urged the UK not to go down that road, that it would open up the United Kingdom to espionage from the Chinese Government. The United Kingdom is one of the members of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network, a network of our closest allies where we share our most sensitive, our most important, our most confidential national security secrets.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Nigel Farage on a podcast I host and to talk about Brexit, to talk about Europe, but also to talk about Huawei and the threat from China. As I said to Nigel on the podcast, as much as we love the Brits, as valuable a friend as the UK is to the United States, if the UK went forward with allowing Huawei to install significant telecom infrastructure in its country, we might have to reassess the UK's participation in the Five Eyes security network. As I put it then, ``four eyes are better than six eyes.''
Well, I am grateful to say that following the coronavirus pandemic, the United Kingdom reconsidered its decision. It saw the threat of Communist China and Huawei, and it stepped back from the brink. That was the right thing to do, and it did so in response to considerable pressure from the U.S. Government.
I very much hope that this pattern we are seeing of the Biden administration embracing Communist China will not reverse that pressure, will not lighten up on our allies and tacitly encourage them to move forward with Huawei to allow the espionage architecture to be put in place their nations. That would render America more vulnerable. It would render our allies more vulnerable. It would render the world more vulnerable.
It would have been a very simple matter for Governor Raimondo to commit to keeping Huawei on the Entity List. It would have been a very simple matter for Governor Raimondo to commit to keeping the Chinese technology companies that I urged be added to the list, keeping them on the list. She refused to do so repeatedly.
As I said, this appears to be a part of a pattern of a systematic decision to embrace Communist China. If that is indeed the direction the Biden administration is going, I hope that Members of both parties who have seen the threat posed by Communist China will urge the President, will urge the Cabinet, will urge this administration: Stop the embrace of communist China. Defend the interests of the United States of America.
Because she was not willing to make these commitments, I will be voting against the confirmation of Governor Raimondo, and I encourage my colleagues to do the same.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Will the Senator withhold his request?
Mr. CRUZ. I withhold my request.
____________________
