VIDEO | TRANSCRIPT

Cantwell Votes NO On Advancing Lutnick for Commerce Secretary; Slams His Enthusiasm for Inflationary Tariffs 

In speech on Senate floor, Cantwell says Trump’s pick to lead the Dept. of Commerce will rubber-stamp tariffs, slow domestic chip manufacturing, and hang NOAA out to dry 

Cantwell also stresses: “Now is not the time to cut FAA staffing”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, voted against confirming Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as Secretary of the Department of Commerce.

In a speech delivered on the Senate floor, Sen. Cantwell urged her colleagues to follow suit.

The next Secretary of Commerce will have to deal with a wide-ranging, growing list of issues, from trade and exports […], expanding broadband, weather forecasting, patent issues, export controls on A.I., and figuring out some of the most thorny issues related to how we move our country forward, generally, in commerce. So it's fair to say that if the Commerce Secretary doesn't get it right, the American people and our American economy pay the price. Unfortunately, I believe that Howard Lutnick, the President's nominee, isn't the right person for this job at this point in time,” Sen. Cantwell said.

The Senate ultimately confirmed Lutnick 51-45.

Earlier this month, Sen. Cantwell also voted against advancing Lutnick out of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and to the full Senate for consideration. At the time, she expressed her concerns with Lutnick’s support for President Trump’s proposed tariffs. She also pointed to Lutnick’s failure to commit to fully allocating the funds approved by Congress under the Cantwell-led CHIPS & Science Act, as well as his waffling on whether he’d protect NOAA – including NOAA’s crucial missions and functions, and the workforce delivering those services to the American people. Sen. Cantwell had previously questioned Lutnick on these topics in a committee hearing the week prior – video of that hearing is HERE.

Sen. Cantwell on FAA and Aviation Safety:

“I would just say this: now is not the time to cut FAA staffing,” Sen. Cantwell said on the Senate floor today. “It is critically clear to me that we need these air traffic controllers, and so we have to make these investments. We should be working together, right now, on aviation. The most important thing? Let's work together for the benefit of the flying public to come up with the best solutions that we can implement in aviation safety. Taking a broad brush and just cutting people out of the FAA -- when oftentimes they're the people that are helping you get that safety -- is not what we should be doing right now.”

During her tenure as chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Sen. Cantwell sounded the alarm about the staffing shortage of air traffic controllers, need for more FAA safety inspectors, a series of aviation incidents and near-misses on and around runways, and the midair blowout of a door plug in January 2024. Last year, the Committee’s Aviation Subcommittee also highlighted FAA’s shortage of at least 800 airway transportation systems specialists – commonly known as technicians –  during a December 2024 hearing on “Air Traffic Control Systems, Personnel, and Safety”. Dave Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), the union representing FAA technicians, testified about the importance of closing the shortage and boosting this segment of the FAA workforce in order to keep FAA’s air traffic control systems and equipment safely running.

She led the passage of the FAA Reauthorization Act, signed into law in May 2024, which boosts controller staffing, ensuring a five-year commitment to maximum hiring and training to close the current staffing gap. The law requires upgraded safety technologies - giving controllers better visibility into runway traffic - to be installed at every large and medium airport nationwide. The law also includes stricter safety standards for aircraft operators and plane manufacturers, as well as provisions to put more FAA safety inspectors on factory floors.

On Feb. 6, Sen. Cantwell sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy calling on him to ensure that Elon Musk stays out of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), citing Musk’s clear conflicts of interest.

Sen. Cantwell on Tariffs:

“In my conversations with Mr. Lutnick and before his Commerce Committee hearing, he made it very clear that he intends to be very enthusiastic about the President's plans for tariffs,” Sen. Cantwell said today. “My constituents want to see inflation come down, and they want us to lower costs, not increase them. Now that President Trump is teasing out even more tariffs in the coming days on autos, pharmaceuticals,  and semiconductors, it's going to drive up costs for consumers […] We can't afford inflation. We want prices to come down. Whether that's on housing, or whether that's on pharmaceuticals, or whether that's on food prices, we know that tariffs can increase prices.”

Earlier this month, Sen. Cantwell delivered a major speech on the Senate floor arguing that the president’s arbitrary tariffs would threaten domestic job creation and economic growth in an Information Age. She outlined a strategy focused on building coalitions, growing exports, and establishing principles to support innovation in the Information Age – video of that speech is HERE.

In Washington state, two out of every five jobs are tied to trade and trade-related industries.  Combined, the state imported $1.21 billion worth of steel and aluminum last year – and the major industries and employers in Washington that rely on steel and aluminum include aerospace, shipbuilding, utilities, and electronics. When President Trump imposed steel tariffs in 2018, our trading partners immediately responded by imposing tariffs of their own on Washington products, especially agriculture, including cherries, apples, pears, and potatoes. Nationally, across all industries, the steel and aluminum tariffs resulted in a decrease in production worth about $3.4 billion per year, according to an ITC report.  More information on how President Trump’s proposed tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada, and China would affect consumers and businesses in the State of Washington can be found HERE.

Sen. Cantwell has remained a steadfast supporter of free trade to grow the economy in the State of Washington and nationwide. Sen. Cantwell was the leading voice in negotiations to end India’s 20% retaliatory tariff on American apples, which was imposed in response to tariffs on steel and aluminum and devastated Washington state’s apple exports. India had once been the second-largest export market for American apples, but after President Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum in his first term, India imposed retaliatory tariffs in response and U.S. apple exports plummeted. The impact on Washington apple growers was severe: Apple exports from the state dropped from $120 million in 2017 to less than $1 million by 2023.  In September 2023, following several years of Sen. Cantwell’s advocacy, India ended its retaliatory tariffs on apples and pulse crops which was welcome news to the state’s more than 1,400 apple growers and the 68,000-plus workers they support.

Sen. Cantwell on Semiconductor Manufacturing:

“We learned during the chips crisis that even the cost of a used car went up $2,000. That's because chips were at a shortage -- car industries, trucking industries couldn’t even get enough chips to make and ship cars, and then the consequence was even used cars went up $2,000. So we don't want to recreate that again,” Sen. Cantwell said today. “We want a Commerce Secretary who is going to fight for the CHIPS & Science investment that's already been made in the electronic manufacturing process in the United States and keep the semiconductor industry right here. But unfortunately, Mr. Lutnick, before the Committee, would not commit to standing by the commitments of the term sheets the Department of Commerce has already signed.”

Sen. Cantwell was the main architect and key negotiator of the CHIPS & Science Act. In her position as Commerce chair, she was instrumental in securing the science R&D funding authorizations in the 11th hour of negotiations. A key component of the legislation is the Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs (Tech Hubs) program that was authored by Sen. Cantwell to strengthen U.S. economic and national security with investments in regions across the country. Earlier this month, the American Aerospace Materials Manufacturing Center (AAMMC) in Spokane was awarded $48 million from the program to establish the first-of-its-kind testbed facility in the United States focused on developing advanced thermoplastic materials - new types of lightweight, heat-moldable, and recyclable materials that can replace metal in aircraft parts. The AAMMC will serve as the nation's hub for creating and testing these innovative materials that are essential for more rapidly building fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly aircraft. 

Sen. Cantwell on NOAA:

“When asked for the record, ‘Should NOAA be dismantled, as called for in Project 2025?’, Mr. Lutnick would only say he'll figure it out once he's confirmed,” Sen. Cantwell said today. “We needed a bigger commitment to NOAA. NOAA already supplies a big, important aspect of what we deal with, with weather forecasting, tracking extreme weather, hurricanes, wildfires, managing our fisheries, operating ships that conduct important charting for national security. Mr. Lutnick gave very tepid support for NOAA.”

Project 2025 calls for NOAA to be “dismantled and many of its functions eliminated,” calling it part of the “climate change alarm industry.” NOAA provides critical services to the Nation including weather forecasts, extreme storm tracking and monitoring, tools to enable communities to adapt to sea level rise and climate change, supporting fisheries management, and conserving marine mammals and other protected species.

Sen. Cantwell is a champion of NOAA and helped secure $3.3 billion in NOAA investments in the Inflation Reduction Act to help communities prepare for and adapt to climate change, boost science needed to understand changing weather and climate patterns, and invest in advanced computer technologies that are critical for extreme weather prediction and emergency response. Her Fire Ready Nation Act, bipartisan legislation to strengthen NOAA’s ability to help forecast, prevent, and fight wildfires, passed the Commerce committee unanimously earlier this month and now heads to the full Senate for consideration.

Video of Sen. Cantwell’s speech on the Senate floor today is available HERE, and transcript HERE.