U.S. panel votes to advance nomination of Raimondo to head Commerce Department

President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday was approved by a 21-3 vote by the U.S. Commerce Department.

At her Jan. 26 confirmation hearing, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo vowed to protect U.S. telecommunications networks from Chinese companies, but refused to commit to keeping telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies on a U.S. economic blacklist. Senate Commerce Committee chairman Roger Wicker, a Republican, said Wednesday he was concerned that she did not state unequivocally that the Biden administration would keep Huawei on the Entity List.