Cruz Places Hold on Raimondo Nomination for Commerce Secretary
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, put a hold on the commerce secretary nominee over the future of restrictions on Huawei. Gina Raimondo, in written responses to Senate Finance Committee members' questions, said, “I currently have no reason to believe that entities…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
on those lists [the Entity List and the Military End User List] should not be there. If confirmed, I look forward to a briefing on these entities and others of concern.” That was not definitive enough for Cruz, who tweeted Feb. 4 he would lift the hold when the Biden administration “commits” to keeping Huawei on the Entity List. Cruz does not have the power to prevent the Senate from bringing the nomination for a vote, but he could filibuster if there are not at least 60 votes to cut off debate. Most Finance Committee Republicans voted to advance her nomination, so it's quite possible a filibuster could be avoided. Raimondo's nomination is not expected to advance before or during the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.