A crucial part of Trump’s agenda will be those who execute it. We recap recent developments specific to leadership nominations and confirmations below.
On February 5th, the Senate Commerce Committee voted to advance Howard Lutnick’s nomination for a full Senate Vote. We expect that vote to occur by the end of next week. Howard Lutnick was nominated by President Trump to serve as the Secretary of Commerce. Commerce administers and enforces a huge swath of the Administration’s trade policy through various trade focused organizations such as the Bureau of Industry and Security and the International Trade Administration.
On February 3rd, President Trump also formally nominated Jeffrey Kessler to be the Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security. Kessler is currently a partner at WilmerHale and served as Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance at U.S. Department of Commerce during Trump’s first term. President Trump also formally nominated William Kimmitt to be the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade. Kimmitt is currently a partner at Kirkland & Ellis. Hearings for both Kessler and Kimmitt have yet to be scheduled.
In addition to leadership at Commerce, below is a running list of confirmed or nominated Agency heads who will also be tasked with carrying out Trump’s trade policy.
- Department of State – Marco Rubio: Confirmed. Rubio was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. The State Department includes several departments and directorates involved in trade policy, including the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, which manages export controls on defense articles covered by International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
- Department of the Treasury – Scott Bessent: Confirmed. The Treasury Department includes the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which implements the U.S.’s sanction program, as well as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
- Department of Homeland Security – Kristi Noem: Confirmed. Noem was elected Governor of South Dakota in 2018 and previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives.
- Department of Defense – Pete Hegseth: Confirmed. Hegseth is a combat veteran who served in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve.
- Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – Rodney Scott: Nominated. Scott formerly served as the head of Border Patrol under both Biden and Trump. CBP is the U.S.’s primary border control agency but also collects import duties and enforces the U.S.’s trade regulations on imported goods. There is no date set for Scott’s nomination hearing.
- U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) – Jamieson Greer: Nominated. Jamieson Greer is a Partner at King & Spauling and served as the Chief of Staff for Trump’s previous USTR Robert Lighthizer. Greer’s hearing is set for February 6th.