D.C. Memo: Cruz Expects Lutnick to be Confirmed as Commerce Secretary Next Week
◾ AM Radio Bill Ready for Senate Floor ◾ Cruz's Panel OKs Capito USF Tweak ◾ Emily Barr: 'Shame' on CBS for Caving ◾ Bolton: Fiber's Troubles 'Misleading' ◾ Carr's Feb. 27 Agenda ◾ Starks in L.A.
Lutnick: The Senate Commerce Committee voted along party lines yesterday to approve the nomination of Cantor Fitzgerald Chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick to be Commerce Secretary in the Trump administration. Lutnick, who still needs full Senate approval, will have a big role, along with NTIA Administrator-designate Arielle Roth, in repurposing the $42.45 billion BEAD program that so far has failed to connect a single location to broadband service after more than three years as law. The Committee vote was 16-12, with Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania as the only Democrat to support Lutnick. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) later said he expects Lutnick to be confirmed next week. The committee session included a tense debate over Elon Musk’s role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and recent steps to take control of the Treasury Department’s central payments database and put nearly all staff of the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave. “It is difficult to sit here and hold a bipartisan markup when President Trump and Elon Musk and their team of government arsonists are blatantly violating the law, by withholding federal funds, seizing control of critical government systems and even proposing to eliminate all agencies by executive fiat,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who offered an amendment (which failed) designed to block Musk’s activities under certain conditions. “There is no branch of the federal government called Elon Musk,” Markey added. Cruz defended Musk. “This amendment, unfortunately, is nothing more than a clear, partisan political attack on Elon Musk, whom the President has tasked with running the department of government efficiency doge,” Cruz said, adding that Musk had “uncovered considerable waste” inside USAID. (Continued after paywall.)
