Organizational history The department was originally created as the
United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903. It was subsequently renamed the Department of Commerce on March 4, 1913, as the bureaus and agencies specializing in labor were transferred to the new
Department of Labor. 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 also merged into the Commerce Department. In 1949, the
Public Roads Administration was added to the department after the
Federal Works Agency was dismantled. 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
Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) was created on March 5, 1969, originally established by President Richard M. Nixon as the Office of Minority Business Enterprise. The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was created on October 3, 1970. The
Cabinet Council on Commerce and Trade was one of multiple Cabinet Councils established in the
United States on or about February 26, 1981 by the
Reagan Administration. 2020 data breach In 2020, the Department of Commerce
suffered a data breach following a
cyberattack likely conducted by a
nation state adversary, possibly Russia.
Herbert Hoover as secretary of commerce Herbert Hoover was appointed Secretary of Commerce in 1921 by then-President
Warren G. Harding. Hoover was, by far, the most active secretary in the history of the department until the end of his position in 1928. After his election as president in 1920, Warren G. Harding rewarded Hoover for his support, offering to appoint him as either
Secretary of the Interior or
Secretary of Commerce. Secretary of Commerce was considered a minor Cabinet post, with limited and vaguely defined responsibilities, but Hoover, emphasizing his identity as a businessman, accepted the position. In sharp contrast to the Interior Department, there were no scandals at Commerce. Hoover envisioned the Commerce Department as the hub of the nation's growth and stability. His experience mobilizing the war-time economy convinced him that the federal government could promote efficiency by eliminating waste, increasing production, encouraging the adoption of data-based practices, investing in infrastructure, and conserving natural resources. Contemporaries described Hoover's approach as a "third alternative" between "unrestrained capitalism" and socialism, which was becoming increasingly popular in Europe. Hoover sought to foster a balance among labor, capital, and the government, and for this he has been variously labeled a "
corporatist" or an
associationalist. Hoover demanded, and received, authority to coordinate economic affairs throughout the government. He created many sub-departments and committees, overseeing and regulating everything from manufacturing statistics to air travel. In some instances he "seized" control of responsibilities from other Cabinet departments when he deemed that they were not carrying out their responsibilities well; some began referring to him as the "Secretary of Commerce and Under-Secretary of all other departments".
Radio Until the passage of the
Radio Act of 1912, radio transmissions (generally known as "wireless telegraphy") in the United States were largely unregulated. Radio at this time was almost exclusively employed for maritime use, so regulatory responsibility was assigned to Commerce's Bureau of Navigation. When Hoover joined the department, almost no families had radio receivers. The early 1920s saw the rapid rise of broadcasting, to over 500 stations by the end of 1922. To receive advice on this innovation, Hoover called a series of four annual conferences, beginning with one held from February 27 to March 2, 1922. Attendees at the first conference included:
Dr. S. W. Stratton, chairman (Director of Bureau of Standards),
Edwin H. Armstrong, Columbia University, Capt.
Samuel W. Bryant, U.S.N., Navy Department,
Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, secretary Institute of Radio Engineers,
Prof. L. A. Hazeltine, Stevens Institute of Technology,
R. B. Howell, Metropolitan Utilities District, Omaha, Nebraska,
Hiram Percy Maxim, president American Radio Relay League,
Maj. Gen. George O. Squier, War Department, and representative
Wallace H. White, jr., of Maine. In the summer of 1926, the federal government's authority to assign station frequencies and powers was successfully challenged by a Chicago station,
WJAZ. A chaotic period followed, until the situation was stabilized by the passage of the
Radio Act of 1927, which transferred radio regulation to the newly formed
Federal Radio Commission (FRC). This new agency required stations to demonstrate that they met a "convenience, interest, and necessity" standard. The original idea was that the FRC would function for one year, after which regulation would return to Commerce. However, reauthorizations of the FRC were made until its replacement by the
Federal Communications Commission in 1934.
Travel Hoover was also influential in the early development of air travel, and he sought to create a thriving private industry boosted by indirect government subsidies. He encouraged the development of emergency landing fields, required all runways to be equipped with lights and radio beams, and encouraged farmers to make use of planes for
crop dusting. He also established the federal government's power to inspect planes and license pilots, setting a precedent for the later
Federal Aviation Administration.
Other Hoover initiatives With the goal of encouraging wise business investments, Hoover made the Commerce Department a clearinghouse of information. He recruited numerous academics from various fields and tasked them with publishing reports on different aspects of the economy, including steel production and films. To eliminate waste, he encouraged the standardization of products like automobile tires and baby bottle nipples. Other efforts at eliminating waste included reducing labor losses from trade disputes and seasonal fluctuations, reducing industrial losses from accident and injury, and reducing the amount of crude oil spilled during extraction and shipping. He promoted international trade by opening overseas offices to advise businessmen. Hoover was especially eager to promote Hollywood films overseas. His "Own Your Own Home" campaign was a collaboration to promote ownership of single-family dwellings, with groups such as the Better Houses in America movement, the Architects' Small House Service Bureau, and the Home Modernizing Bureau. He worked with bankers and the
savings and loan industry to promote the new long-term home mortgage, which dramatically stimulated home construction. Other accomplishments included winning the agreement of
U.S. Steel to adopt an eight-hour workday, and the fostering of the
Colorado River Compact, a water rights compact among Southwestern states.
Foreign economic policy The department has always been involved in promoting international non-financial business. It stations commercial attachés at embassies around the world. Currently, the key sub-agencies are the
International Trade Administration, and the
Bureau of Industry and Security. The ITA provides technical expertise to numerous American companies, helping them adjust to foreign specifications. It provides guidance and marketing data as well. The
Office of Export Enforcement administers export controls, especially regarding the spread of nuclear technology and highly advanced electronic technology. Under the administration of President
Donald Trump, the policy has been to restrict high-technology flows to China. From 1949 to 1994, the department worked with the 17-nation Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls, which restricted technological flows to the Soviet Union and other communist nations. Since 1980, the Commerce Department works to neutralize the dumping of exports or the subsidies of overseas production. Along with the export controls, this work continues to generate friction with other nations. On July 20, 2020, the commerce department announced adding eleven Chinese firms to an export blacklist for committing human rights abuse against
Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in
Xinjiang by conducting genetic analysis on them. Two of the firms sanctioned were subsidiaries of BGI Group, a Chinese genetic sequencing, and biomedical firm. In the same year October, the
BGI Group firm was again named in the alleged exploitation of medical samples of patients testing for COVID-19 in Nevada using the 200,000 rapid testing kits donated by the
United Arab Emirates under its AI and cloud computing firm,
Group 42. The Emirati firm, also known as G42, has previously been named in the
mass surveillance of people via an instant messaging application called ToTok, which was actually a spy application snooping on user data. ==Organization==