January, 05 2021, 11:00pm EDT

Why Progressives Should Care About the Commerce Secretary & Reject Raimondo
WASHINGTON
As President-elect Joe Biden fills out his Cabinet, progressives have pushed hard on most major positions, save one: Commerce Secretary. Recent reporting on the role frames the Commerce Secretary as a glorified middle-man between C-Suites and the White House.
In fact, the work of the Commerce Department impacts all Americans. Yet for decades, Commerce Secretaries have been chosen not for their policy agenda or experience, but as a reward for their massive campaign contributions and personal loyalty to the President. This practice of selling the Commerce Secretary position to the highest bidder has made it difficult to understand just how valuable a populist Commerce Secretary could be.
The benefits of what a progressive Commerce Secretary could mean to American families is what makes Axios' reporting that Rhode Island Governor and corporate insider Gina Raimondo is a frontrunner for the position so troubling. Raimondo, a former venture capitalist, is the wrong pick - and the American public agrees. According to November polling, nearly 70% of respondents oppose President-elect Biden appointing Raimondo to any cabinet position.
Biden's choice of Commerce Secretary will impact several major policy areas: fighting against climate change, pushing back on Republican gerrymandering, and preventing Big Tech from having unchecked government power. Biden must select a Commerce Secretary dedicated to fighting for progressive values and serving as an advocate for the people over big corporations.
Why Progressives Should Care About The Commerce Secretary:
- The Commerce Department houses the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). USPTO has an opportunity to use the patent system to limit Big Pharma's patent monopolies and decrease prescription drug costs. Despite Republicans like Thom Tillis stripping away the USPTO's power to withhold patents on lifesaving drugs, the Department retains enough power that the Biden-Harris Administration can and should act to increase the accessibility of generic drugs.
- The Commerce Secretary would also be charged with running the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which plays an important role in combating climate change. NOAA's research and reporting on climate change, including the National Climate Assessment and the annual Arctic Report Card, are essential tools in tracking and publicizing the impact of climate change. NOAA is also responsible for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which produces the country's definitive report on climate change, the National Climate Assessment. With a strong Commerce Secretary, the Biden-Harris Administration could use the agency to fulfill their promise of centralizing the fight against climate change.
- The Census Bureau, which is also housed in the Commerce Department, has the potential to radically transform the American electorate. Census results are used for redistricting, meaning if Biden's Commerce Secretary is unwilling or unable to fight political interference in the 2020 Census, it could hand Republicans a big win in their attempt to undercount and disenfranchise communities of color. Biden's Commerce Secretary can take several steps to fix the broken 2020 Census process, including directing the Bureau to review the data and increasing overall resources for the Bureau. The 2020 Census is a looming fight that the Biden Administration will need to take on, and a strong and committed Commerce Secretary will be necessary to protect the count.
- The Commerce Department also oversees the International Trade Administration, giving the next Commerce Secretary a significant role in shaping our trade policy. Under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the ITA can conduct investigations on the impact of imports on national security, and recommend the use of tariffs or quotas based on the result of these investigations. The International Trade Administration also has the power to blacklist foreign companies from trade with the United States. Having a Commerce Secretary who will evaluate imports based on their impact on working families will be an essential step towards building a progressive trade policy.
Raimondo's disqualifying history of prioritizing Wall Street, lobbyists, and the health insurance industry above the public interest:
- Raimondo has a long history of prioritizing the needs of Wall Street above those of working Rhode Islanders - and helping the wealthy donors who boost her campaigns. "[Raimondo's] so-called 'pension reform' slashed school teachers and other state workers pension benefits by 3%, but increased fees paid to Gina and her Wall Street pals by 2.5% and 4% respectively." - Leading forensic auditor and former SEC attorney, Edward Siedle wrote in Forbes
- At the behest of lobbyists, she issued executive orders to shield nursing homes, hospitals, and other healthcare providers from liability. Documents show that Raimondo quickly responded to lobbyists' demands for an executive order granting them legal immunity during the pandemic, the culmination of a decade-old effort by the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). "What immunity has done is allow nursing homes to act unreasonably without accountability," said Anthony Leone, a Warwick-based personal injury lawyer who specializes in nursing homes." - The Providence Journal
- She approved steep health insurance rate hikes in the midst of the pandemic so health insurance companies could profit. "Some of the rate increases are nearly 10%, all at a time when health insurance companies have been piling up revenues with consumers using fewer services due to the pandemic" - Go Local Providence News
- In the name of a balanced budget, Raimdondo tried to strip Rhode Island's lowest-income areas of 50 percent of a key aid fund mid-pandemic. "Rhode Island's cities and towns are disputing the legality of a 50% cut by the Raimondo administration in a $12.4-million aid program for 'distressed' communities, including 'some with the highest COVID-19 case rates in the state.' The administration put city and town leaders on notice that it was likely to go ahead with the cut that Gov. Gina Raimondo proposed to lawmakers in January." --Providence Journal
- Just this year, she sought to cut $58.7 million from Medicaid, while giving $15.7 million to insurance companies. "When we're pushing brutal Medicaid cuts, we just can't afford to give extra money to insurance companies - especially not when it comes with an initiative to encourage them to cut spending on actual care." - Rhode Island State Senator Samuel Bell in Uprise RI
The Revolving Door Project (RDP) scrutinizes executive branch appointees to ensure they use their office to serve the broad public interest, rather than to entrench corporate power or seek personal advancement.
LATEST NEWS
'Everyone Is Welcome Here' Signs Banned From Idaho Schools as 'Political' Statement
"To say that 'Everyone is Welcome' in a public school system is not political, it's the law," said one Idaho teacher.
Jul 02, 2025
The Idaho attorney general's office has declared schools in the state will no longer be allowed to post signs declaring that "Everyone is welcome here" on the grounds that they are purportedly a political message aimed at criticizing the policies of President Donald Trump.
Idaho Ed Newsreported Monday that the office has found that signs stating "Everyone is welcome here" violate Idaho House Bill 41, a law passed back in March that bars schools from flying flags or displaying signs that represent "a political viewpoint, including but not limited to flags or banners regarding a political party, race, sexual orientation, gender, or a political ideology."
In explaining its rationale, the Idaho attorney general's office claimed that "these signs are part of an ideological/social movement which started in Twin Cities, Minnesota following the 2016 election of Donald Trump" and added that "since that time, the signs have been used by the Democratic Party as a political statement. The Idaho Democratic Party even sells these signs as part of its fundraising efforts.”
The signs became an issue after Sarah Inama, a teacher in Idaho's West Ada School District, had refused to take them down from her classroom in the wake of Idaho House Bill 41's passage because she did not believe that a sign welcoming students regardless of their race or ethnicity should be considered political.
In a statement to Idaho Ed News, Inama once again expressed bewilderment that anyone could find the signs to be a political statement, especially given that government institutions are already legally barred from engaging in racial discrimination.
"To say that 'Everyone is welcome' in a public school system is not political, it's the law," Inama told the publication.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'This Fight Is Not Over': Progressives Launch Last-Ditch Push Against GOP Budget Monstrosity
"This country deserves better than this dumpster fire of greed, cruelty, and cowardice."
Jul 02, 2025
Progressives within and outside of Congress are mobilizing and working to rally public opposition on Wednesday as House Republicans moved to put the final stamp of approval on a budget package that includes unprecedented cuts to Medicaid and federal nutrition assistance—alongside trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.
"This fight isn't over, and we're not backing down," Andrew O'Neil, national advocacy director of Indivisible, said following the Republican-controlled Senate's narrow passage of the budget reconciliation bill on Tuesday, a vote so close that Vice President JD Vance was forced to intervene to push the measure over the finish line.
The GOP's margins are similarly thin in the House, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) only able to lose three Republican members amid unanimous Democratic opposition.
Indivisible and other advocacy organizations are driving calls and emails to House Republicans on Wednesday urging them to vote down the Senate-passed legislation, which is significantly more expensive and contains more aggressive Medicaid cuts than the bill the House approved in May. Medicaid cuts are highly unpopular with the U.S. public, including among Republican voters.
The phone number for the U.S. House switchboard is (202) 224-3121.
"Your Republican representative could be the deciding vote," Ezra Levin, Indivisible's co-executive director, said in an appearance on MSNBC late Tuesday. "We've got about 26 Republican targets. We need four of them—we just need four. And this is not a done deal."
While a House vote on the legislation could come as soon as Wednesday, far-right hardliners in the Republican caucus are threatening to prevent a quick advance of the bill, pointing to projections that it would add trillions of dollars to the nation's deficit over the next decade.
Reps. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) reportedly headed to the White House on Wednesday to meet with Trump administration officials, who have urged Republican holdovers to drop their objections and help pass the budget legislation.
Progressive lawmakers in the House, meanwhile, are united in firm opposition to the bill, which they warn would have catastrophic impacts on vulnerable Americans nationwide.
"No way will I allow [President Donald] Trump and the GOP to rip healthcare and food away from millions of Americans just so he, [Elon] Musk, and their billionaire buddies can get a tax break," Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said Wednesday, declaring that he will vote "hell no" on the Republican bill.
Today the Senate passed the biggest betrayal of working people in modern history.
It rips health care from 17 million, slashes food aid, and showers billionaires with tax breaks.
Next stop: the House. Progressives will be voting HELL NO. https://t.co/qd4Q13YiNa
— Progressive Caucus (@USProgressives) July 1, 2025
House Republican leaders are hoping to get the bill to President Donald Trump's desk for his signature before the July 4 holiday on Friday.
If passed, experts say the GOP legislation would spark the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in U.S. history.
Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, said Tuesday that the Republican bill "steals from the poor to give massive tax cuts to the wealthy."
"If the Republicans wanted to add $4 trillion to the national debt, they could have instead written a $12,000 check to each and every adult and child in the United States," said Shierholz. "However, this grotesque bill would cause the bottom 40% of households to lose income on average. This country deserves better than this dumpster fire of greed, cruelty, and cowardice."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Rights Defenders Denounce Trump-DeSantis Alligator Alcatraz as 'Direct Assault on Humanity'
"This facility echoes some of our nation's darkest history," said a civil liberties advocate.
Jul 02, 2025
Civil liberties advocates expressed horror on Tuesday after President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a joint press event at a massive new detention facility in the Florida Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz."
The facility was first announced last month when Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier unveiled a plan to renovate the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport and transform it into a mass detention center for immigrants. During a press event touting the new facility, DeSantis boasted that detainees being held at the facility had little hope of ever escaping given that it was surrounded by miles of alligator-infested swamps.
"What'll happen is you'll bring people in there, they ain't going anywhere once they're there unless you want them to go somewhere, because, good luck getting to civilization," he explained. "So the security is amazing—natural and otherwise."
Civil liberties advocates were appalled by the new facility, which is lined with razor-wire fence and is projected at least initially to house 5,000 beds for immigrants awaiting deportation. Bacardi Jackson, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, accused Trump and DeSantis of engaging in wanton cruelty with their touting of the new facility and said it harkened back to dark chapters in American history.
"Building a prison-like facility on sacred indigenous land in the middle of the Everglades is a direct assault on humanity, dignity, indigenous sovereignty, and the constitutional protections we all share," she said. “Our laws—both U.S. and Florida—prohibit cruel and unusual punishment. Yet, this facility echoes some of our nation's darkest history, all while trampling the very land that indigenous communities have long fought to protect."
She added that "the facility's opening also comes as Congress is poised to authorize $45 billion in funding to expand the harmful mass immigration detention machine, right on the heels of multiple deaths in detention facilities" and further said that the project "dehumanizes people, strips them of their rights, and diverts public dollars from the services our communities need."
Guardian correspondent Robert Tait, meanwhile, described the press event surrounding the facility's opening as a "calculatedly provocative celebration of the dystopian" in a place that was designed to be "a location of dread to those lacking documentary proof of their right to be in the U.S."
Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta delivered an even more scathing denunciation of the facility on his Substack page, labeling it a "gulag in the swamp" that was intended to distract Trump supporters from the Republican Party's efforts to take an axe to Medicaid spending in their budget bill.
"Trump knows he can salvage a bad news cycle in conservative media if he can find new and, in this case, medieval ways to torment immigrants," Acosta explained. "Distract the base from Medicaid coverage they're going to lose or the skyrocketing deficits plaguing future generations by conjuring up the fantasy of terrified migrants being eaten by alligators—a prospect that seemed to delight Trump when speaking with reporters Tuesday morning."
Amid growing condemnation of the facility, Trump adviser Stephen Miller encouraged other states to pitch their own ideas for migrant detention facilities during a Tuesday night Fox News appearance. What's more, Miller said that accepted proposals from states would receive funding from the very same GOP budget bill that is projected to slash Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion over a 10-year period.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular