United States Department of Commerce
Seal of the United States Department of Commerce
Agency overview
Formed	February 14, 1903
Headquarters	Herbert C. Hoover Building 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 38°53′39.48″N 77°1′58.08″W / 38.8943°N 77.0328°W / 38.8943; -77.0328
Employees	43,880 (2011)[1]
Annual budget	US$10.2 billion (2009) US$14.2 billion (est. 2010) US$9.3 billion (est. 2011)
Agency executive	John Bryson, United States Secretary of Commerce
Website
commerce.gov

The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. The mission of the department is to "promote job creation and improved living standards for all Americans by creating an infrastructure that promotes economic growth, technological competitiveness, and sustainable development". Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for business and government decision-making, issuing patents and trademarks, and helping to set industrial standards. The Department of Commerce headquarters is the Herbert C. Hoover Building in Washington, D.C.

History[link]

The department was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903. ^[2] It was subsequently renamed the Department of Commerce on March 4, 1913, and its bureaus and agencies specializing in labor were transferred to the new Department of Labor. The United States Patent and Trademark Office was transferred from the Interior Department into Commerce, and the Federal Employment Stabilization Office existed within the department from 1931 to 1939. In 1940, the Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) was transferred from the Agriculture Department, and the Civil Aeronautics Authority was merged into the department. In 1949, the Public Roads Administration was added to the department due to the dissolution of the Federal Works Agency. In 1958, the independent Federal Aviation Agency was created and the Civil Aeronautics Authority was abolished. The Economic Development Administration was created in 1965. In 1966, the Bureau of Public Roads was transferred to the newly created Department of Transportation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was created on October 3, 1970.^[3]

Reorganization proposals[link]

Proposals to reorganize the Department go back many decades. ^[4] The Department of Commerce was one of three departments that Texas governor Rick Perry advocated eliminating during his 2012 presidential campaign, along with the Department of Education and Department of Energy. Perry's campaign cited the frequency with which agencies had historically been moved into and out of the department and its lack of a coherent focus, and advocated moving its vital programs into other departments such as the Department of the Interior, Department of Labor, and Department of the Treasury. The Economic Development Administration would be completely eliminated.^[5]

On January 13, 2012, President Obama announced his intentions to ask the United States Congress for the power to close the department and replace it with a new cabinet-level agency focused on trade and exports. The new agency would include the Office of the United States Trade Representative, currently part of the Executive Office of the President, as well as the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the United States Trade and Development Agency, and the Small Business Administration, which are all currently independent agencies. The Obama administration projects that the reorganization would save $3 billion and will help the administration's goal of doubling U.S. exports in five years.^[6] The new agency would be organized around four "pillars": a technology and innovation office including the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the National Institute of Standards and Technology; a statistical division including the United States Census Bureau and other data-collection agencies currently in the Commerce Department, and also the Bureau of Labor Statistics which would be transferred from the Department of Labor; a trade and investment policy office; and a small business development office. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would be transferred from the Department of Commerce into the Department of the Interior.^[7] The reorganization was part of a larger proposal which would grant the President the authority to propose mergers of federal agencies, which would then be subject to an up-or-down Congressional vote. This ability had existed from the Great Depression until the Reagan presidency, when Congress rescinded the authority.^[8]

The Obama administration plan faced criticism for some of its elements. Some Congress members expressed concern that the Office of the United States Trade Representative would lose focus if it were included in a larger bureaucracy, especially given its status as an "honest broker" between other agencies, which tend to advocate for specific points of view.^[6][9] The overall plan has also been criticized as an attempt to create an agency similar to Japan's powerful Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which was abolished in 2001 after some of its initiatives failed and it became seen as a hindrance to growth.^[9] The transfer of NOAA into the Department of the Interior has also received commentary, with its climate and terrestrial operations and fisheries and endangered species programs expected to integrate well with agencies already in the Interior Department, such as the United States Geological Survey and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. However, environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council feared that the reorganization could distract the agency from its mission of protecting the nation's oceans and ecosystems.^[10]

Organization[link]

• United States Secretary of Commerce
  • United States Deputy Secretary of Commerce
    • Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs
      • Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA)
        • Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
        • Bureau of the Census
    • Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade
      • International Trade Administration (ITA)
    • Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security
      • Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)
    • Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere
      • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
        • National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
        • National Weather Service (NWS)
        • National Ocean Service (NOS)
        • Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR)
        • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps (NOAA Corps)
    • Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property
      • Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)
    • Economic Development Administration (EDA)
    • Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)
    • National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
    • National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
    • National Technical Information Service (NTIS)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: U.S. Department of Commerce

• United States Department of Commerce Official Website
• Department Of Commerce Meeting Notices and Rule Changes from The Federal Register RSS Feed
• US Commercial Service
• Department of Commerce Representation in the UK
• Proposed and finalized federal regulations from the United States Department of Commerce
• United States Department of Commerce at WhoRunsGov at The Washington Post

v t e Agencies under the United States Department of Commerce Headquarters: Herbert C. Hoover Building · Secretary of Commerce Deputy Secretary of Commerce Economic Development Administration · National Technical Information Service · Minority Business Development Agency · National Telecommunications and Information Administration Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Bureau of Industry and Security Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs Economics and Statistics Administration · Bureau of Economic Analysis · Census Bureau Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade International Trade Administration Under Secretary of Commerce and Administrator for NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration · National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology National Institute for Standards and Technology Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Patent and Trademark Office

This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. Gary Locke United States Ambassador to China Incumbent Assumed office August 1, 2011 President Barack Obama Preceded by Jon Huntsman, Jr. 36th United States Secretary of Commerce In office March 26, 2009 – August 1, 2011 President Barack Obama Deputy Dennis Hightower Rebecca Blank (Acting) Preceded by Carlos Gutierrez Succeeded by Rebecca Blank (Acting) 21st Governor of Washington In office January 15, 1997 – January 12, 2005 Lieutenant Brad Owen Preceded by Mike Lowry Succeeded by Christine Gregoire 5th King County Executive In office January 4, 1994 – January 15, 1997 Preceded by Tim Hill Succeeded by Ron Sims Member of the Washington House of Representatives from the 37th district In office January 10, 1983 – January 3, 1994 Preceded by Peggy Maxie Succeeded by Vivian Caver Personal details Born (1950-01-21) January 21, 1950 (age 62) Seattle, Washington, U.S. Political party Democratic Party Spouse(s) Mona Lee Children Emily Nicole Dylan James Madeline Lee Alma mater Yale University Boston University Religion Baptist Gary Locke Traditional Chinese 駱家輝 Simplified Chinese 骆家辉 Cantonese Jyutping Lok3 Gaa1-fai1 Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Luò Jiāhuī Cantonese (Yue) - Jyutping Lok3 Gaa1-fai1

Gary Faye Locke (Traditional Chinese:駱家輝) is an American politician and the current United States Ambassador to China.

Locke was the 21st Governor of Washington, serving from 1997 to 2005. He was the first governor of a state in the Continental United States of Asian descent, and is the only Chinese American ever to serve as a governor.^[1] He was then appointed by President Barack Obama as United States Secretary of Commerce which he served as until August 1, 2011, when President Obama appointed Locke Ambassador to China.

Family and education[link]

Locke was born on January 21, 1950, in Seattle, Washington. A third-generation American with paternal ancestry from Taishan, Guangdong, China, Locke is the second of five children of James Locke, who served as a staff sergeant in the US Fifth Armored Division during World War II,^[2] and his wife Julie, who is from Hong Kong, which at that time was a British crown colony. He did not learn to speak English until he was five years old and entered school.^[3] Locke spent his early years living with his family in the widely-lauded Yesler Terrace public housing project in Seattle.

Locke graduated with honors from Seattle’s Franklin High School in 1968. He achieved Eagle Scout and received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America.^[3][4]

Through a combination of part-time jobs, financial aid and scholarships, Locke attended Yale University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1972.^[5] He later received his Juris Doctor from the Boston University School of Law in 1975.

On October 15, 1994, he married Mona Lee, a television reporter for the NBC affiliate KING 5 television in Seattle and former Miss Asian America. Her parents immigrated to the United States from Taiwan while her father was originally from Shanghai and her mother from Hubei province. The Lockes have three children: Emily Nicole (b. March 1997), Dylan James, (b. March 1999) and Madeline Lee, (b. November 2004).^[6]

Washington state[link]

In 1982, Locke's South Seattle district elected him to the Washington House of Representatives, where he served as chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Eleven years later, Locke made history by becoming the first Chinese American to be elected King County's County Executive, defeating Tim Hill. In 1996, he won the primary and general elections for governor, becoming the first Chinese American governor in United States history. However, his political committee was fined $2,500 by regulators in 1997 after admitting to state campaign finance law violations during his successful campaign.^[7] Locke easily won re-election in the 2000 governor's race.

Democrats criticized Locke for embracing the Republican Party's no-new-taxes approach to dealing with Washington's budget woes during and after the 2001 economic turmoil. Among his spending-reduction proposals were laying off thousands of state employees; reducing health coverage; freezing most state employees' pay; and cutting funding for nursing homes and programs for the developmentally disabled. In his final budget, Locke suspended two voter-passed, pro-school initiatives and cut state education funding.

Supported by the state's political left, former Washington Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge announced his plans to challenge Locke in the 2004 Democratic primary. Talmadge ended his campaign early for health reasons.

On the national stage, Democrats saw Gary Locke as a possible vice-presidential choice. In 1997, Locke was a guest at that year's State of the Union.^[8]

He was chosen to give his party's response to George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address.^[9] In a surprise move, Locke announced in July 2003 that he would not seek a third term,^[10] saying, "Despite my deep love of our state, I want to devote more time to my family."^[10]

Susan Paynter, a columnist at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, suggested that racist slurs, insults, and threats that Locke and his family received, especially the large number which came after his rebuttal to George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, played a role in Locke's decision to leave office after two terms.^[11] The governor's office received hundreds of threatening letters and e-mails; others threatened to kill his children.^[11]

Locke left office on January 12, 2005. If the disputed 2004 election between Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi had not been resolved by then, Locke would, under Washington's constitution, have remained in office until a successor qualified.^[12]

After leaving office, Locke joined the Seattle office of international law firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, in their China and governmental-relations practice groups. During the leadup to the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, Governor Locke signed on as Washington co-chairman of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's bid for president.^[13]

United States Secretary of Commerce[link]

On December 4, 2008, the Associated Press reported that Locke was a potential candidate for Secretary of the Interior in then-President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet. Eventually, then-Colorado Senator, Ken Salazar, was nominated for that position instead.

On February 25, 2009, Locke was announced as President Barack Obama's choice for Secretary of Commerce.^[7] His nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on March 24, 2009.^[14] Locke was sworn in March 26, 2009, by District judge Richard A. Jones.^[15] He was sworn in by President Obama on May 1, 2009. He is the first Chinese American Secretary of Commerce, and one of three Asian Americans in Obama's cabinet, joining Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, the most of any administration. Politico has reported Locke has been a popular cabinet member among both business and the executive branch.^[16] A declaration of assets made in March 2011 showed Locke to be the sixth richest official in the US executive branch.^[17]

Ambassador to China[link]

Chen Guangcheng (left) with Locke (center) and Kurt M. Campbell (right) at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on May 1, 2012

Following the resignation of Jon Huntsman, Jr., Locke was nominated by President Obama to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the People's Republic of China.^[18] The Senate confirmed him by unanimous consent on July 27, 2011.^[19] On August 1, 2011, Locke resigned as Commerce Secretary and took up his new post.^[20] A photo of Locke carrying his own backpack and ordering his own coffee at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport went viral on the Sina Weibo social network.^[21][22]

At his first news conference after arrival in Beijing, Locke pledged to promote bilateral cooperation and understanding between the two countries.^[23]

Early in Locke's ambassadorship, Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng escaped from house arrest and sought refuge in the US Embassy in Beijing in April 2012. On May 2, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded an apology from the US for its role in the Chen incident.^[24] In an editorial on May 4, Beijing Daily^[who?] questioned Locke's motives by taking in Chen,^[17] and described Chen as "a tool and a pawn for American politicians to blacken China".^[25]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Government of the United States portal
	People's Republic of China portal
	Washington portal
	Seattle portal
	Asian Americans portal
	Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gary Locke

• Biography at the United States Department of Commerce
• Gary Locke at WhoRunsGov at The Washington Post
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Gary Locke at the Internet Movie Database
• Gary Locke collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about Gary Locke in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Gary Locke at the Notable Names Database
• Bio of Gary Locke, Washington State Digital Archives
• Gary Locke on Charlie Rose

v t e Cabinet of President Barack Obama (since 2009)   Cabinet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2009–present) Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner (2009–present) Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (2009–2011) Leon Panetta (2011–present) Attorney General Eric Holder (2009–present) Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (2009–present) Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (2009–present) Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke (2009–2011) John Bryson (2011–present) Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis (2009–present) Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius (2009–present) Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (2009–present) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan (2009–present) Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood (2009–present) Secretary of Energy Steven Chu (2009–present) Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki (2009–present) Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (2009–present)   Cabinet-level Vice President Joe Biden (2009–present) White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (2009–2010) William Daley (2011–2012) Jacob Lew (2012–present) Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lisa Jackson (2009–present) Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag (2009–2010) Jacob Lew (2010–2012) Trade Representative Ron Kirk (2009–present) Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice (2009–present) Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer (2009–2010) Austan Goolsbee (2010–2011) Alan Krueger (2011–present) Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon Panetta (2009–2011) David Petraeus (2011–present) Administrator of the Small Business Administration Karen Mills (2012–present)* * took office in 2009, raised to cabinet-rank in 2012 See also: Confirmations of Barack Obama's Cabinet

v t e United States Secretaries of Commerce Secretaries of Commerce & Labor Cortelyou Metcalf Straus Nagel Secretaries of Commerce Redfield Alexander Hoover Whiting Lamont Chapin Roper Hopkins Jones Wallace Harriman Sawyer Weeks Strauss Mueller Hodges Connor Trowbridge Smith Stans Peterson Dent Morton Richardson Kreps Klutznick Baldrige Verity Mosbacher Franklin Brown Kantor Daley Mineta Evans Gutierrez Locke Bryson

v t e Governors of Washington Territorial (1853–1889) Stevens McMullen Gholson Wallace Pickering Cole M.F. Moore Flanders Salomon Ferry Newell Squire Semple M.C. Moore State (since 1889) Ferry McGraw Rogers McBride Mead Cosgrove Hay Lister Hart Hartley Martin Langlie Wallgren Langlie Rosellini Evans Ray Spellman Gardner Lowry Locke Gregoire

v t e United States Ambassadors to China Envoys to the Qing Empire 1843-1858 Caleb Cushing 1843-44 · Alexander Hill Everett 1845-47 · John Wesley Davis 1848-50 · Humphrey Marshall 1852-54 · Robert Milligan McLane 1853-54 · Peter Parker 1855-57 · William B. Reed 1857-58 Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plentipotentiary to the Qing Empire 1858-1913 John Elliott Ward 1858-60 · Anson Burlingame 1861-67 · John Ross Browne 1868-69 · Frederick F. Low 1869-73 · Benjamin Avery 1874-75 · George Seward 1876-80 · James Burrill Angell 1880-81 · John Russell Young 1882-85 · Charles Harvey Denby 1885-98 · Edwin H. Conger 1898-05 · William Woodville Rockhill 1905-09 · William James Calhoun 1909-13 Envoy to the Republic of China 1913-1929 Paul Samuel Reinsch 1913-19 · Charles Richard Crane 1920-21 · Jacob Gould Schurman 1921-25 · John MacMurray 1925-29 Ambassador to the Republic of China 1929-1949 Nelson T. Johnson 1929-41 · Clarence E. Gauss 1941-44 · Patrick J. Hurley 1944-45 · John Leighton Stuart 1946-49 · Embassy in Taipei 1949-Pres. Chiefs of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing 1973-79 David K. E. Bruce 1973-74 · George H. W. Bush 1974-75 · Thomas S. Gates, Jr. 1976-77 · Leonard Woodcock 1977-79 Ambassador to the People's Republic of China 1979-Present Leonard Woodcock 1979-81 · Arthur W. Hummel, Jr. 1981-85 · Winston Lord 1985-89 · James R. Lilley 1989-91 · J. Stapleton Roy 1991-95 · Jim Sasser 1996-99 · Joseph Prueher 1999-01 · Clark T. Randt, Jr. 2001-09 · Jon Huntsman, Jr. 2009-11 · Gary Locke 2011-

Cameron Forbes Kerry (born September 6, 1950) is the younger brother and political confidant of John F. Kerry.

The fourth child of U.S. diplomat Richard J. Kerry and his wife, Rosemary Winthrop Forbes, Cameron Kerry graduated from Harvard University in 1972, and Boston College Law School in 1978. Cameron Kerry was associated with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Washington, D.C. and served as law clerk to U.S. Senior Circuit Judge Elbert Tuttle, former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (now the Eleventh Circuit). He has been an Adjunct Professor of Telecommunications Law at Suffolk University Law School and has written on First Amendment and cable television issues.^[1] Since 1983, he has worked at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo, focusing on civil litigation, environmental issues, and communications regulation.

In 2004, he served as an influential advisor in his brother’s presidential campaign. Cameron Kerry played a role in decisions behind the scenes and as a campaign surrogate.^[2]

On September 18, 1972, the day before the primary election in which John Kerry was seeking his district's nomination in his race for the U.S. House of Representatives, Cameron Kerry and Thomas J. Vallely were caught in the basement of the building that housed both John Kerry's and opponent Anthony R. DiFruscia's campaign headquarters. Cameron was charged with breaking and entering. One month later, the charges were dropped after the Kerry campaign explained that Cameron was in the building to investigate rumors that his brother's campaign telephone lines were being wiretapped.^[3]

In 1983, Cameron Kerry converted to Judaism before marrying Kathy Weinman.^[4]

During his brother's 2004 presidential campaign, it emerged that their grandfather, Fritz Kohn, was a Jewish immigrant from what is today the Czech Republic who had changed his name to Frederick Kerry and converted to Roman Catholicism. Cameron Kerry traveled across the country speaking to his brother’s views on Israel, campaigning with Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, writer-comedian Larry David, and other Jewish elected officials.^[5] In 2006, Cameron Kerry explored a run for Massachusetts Secretary of State^[6] deciding not to run when the Democratic incumbent, William F. Galvin, announced that he would seek reelection.

Cameron Kerry is the Vice-Chair of the National Jewish Democratic Council and defended Barack Obama in the Jewish press during the 2008 presidential campaign.^[7]

Cameron Kerry was picked to be Barack Obama's general counsel of the Commerce Department.^[8]

References[link]

v t e John Kerry Career Military career · 2004 campaign · VP selection process · Iraq policy · Kerry-Feingold Amendment · Sponsored legislation Elections Senate election, 1984 · Senate election, 1990 · Senate election, 1996 · Senate election, 2002 · United States presidential election, 2004 · Senate election, 2008 Family Forbes family · Dudley–Winthrop family · Teresa Heinz · Julia Thorne · Alexandra Kerry · Vanessa Kerry · Rosemary Forbes Kerry · Cameron Kerry

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