At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) questioned Paul Dabbar, nominee to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce.
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00:00Senator Baldwin. Thank you. Mr. DeBar, congratulations on your nomination. I want to pick off or pick up on a point that our ranking member made in her opening comments.
00:15When Congress passed the bipartisan infrastructure law, we included a bipartisan amendment in this committee that put the Minority Business Development Agency into statute.
00:30Our intention was to invest in entrepreneurs and small businesses by expanding the reach of business centers that provide high-quality technical assistance to minority business enterprises,
00:43including counseling and mentoring, assisting with access to capital and contracts, and supporting job creation and retention.
00:52That recent bipartisan accomplishment, led by many members of this committee, and again on a bipartisan basis, has been dismissed by this administration,
01:03which is set on eliminating the agency and closing the business centers in our states.
01:09President Trump, in dismantling the Minority Business Development Agency, issued an executive order that requires a report,
01:18and that report needs to explain which functions of the Minority Business Development Agency are statutorily required,
01:26which is what we did in this committee when we included our amendment.
01:30My calls for that report have gone unanswered.
01:33So, Mr. DeBar, if confirmed, I will be following up with you to get that report and the answers on the Minority Business Development Agency.
01:44Can I count on you to be responsive?
01:47I will certainly make certain that we respond to your letter.
01:53Mr. DeBar, we have seen the Minority Business Development Agency grant termination notice that was signed by a DOGE member,
02:02named Nate Cavanaugh.
02:05Mr. Cavanaugh signed a notice claiming that he was acting under the authority of the acting undersecretary of the Minority Business Development Agency,
02:19Keith Sonderling.
02:20We have since learned that Mr. Cavanaugh may have potentially sent these grant termination notices
02:25without Mr. Sonderling's approval, which, if true, raises very serious questions about whether DOGE is now running the Department of Commerce.
02:37So, Mr. DeBar, if confirmed, will you commit to review the MBDA grant termination notices that were signed by Mr. Cavanaugh
02:45and promptly inform this committee whether Mr. Cavanaugh sent those notices with proper approval?
02:53If I'm so honored to be confirmed, I have a great amount of experience in running organizations,
03:01including review criteria of who has certain approvals.
03:05I did that as undersecretary.
03:07So, you will immediately let us know whether Mr. Cavanaugh had the authority and approval to sign those grant termination notices?
03:16I will certainly look into it, Senator.
03:18I don't know the details, but I will certainly look into it if I'm confirmed.
03:21And provide those details.
03:22I will respond to any of the requests that you've submitted.
03:29In Wisconsin, our biohealth tech hub furthers the state position as a global leader in personalized medicine.
03:39The first tranche of funding provided by the Chips and Science Act has been disbursed,
03:45but there are millions more owed to the tech hub program over the next five years.
03:52I understand the administration is considering submitting a budget request to Congress
03:57that would eliminate the Economic Development Administration that disperses those funds.
04:04If confirmed, do I have your commitment to keeping the promises that were made to the technology hubs?
04:12So, I'm not familiar with the budget proposals that are being drafted and so on,
04:18but I'll follow whatever the law is and whatever is appropriated by Congress.
04:23So, you would, I have your commitment to keeping the promises that we made to the tech hubs?
04:31Is that what you said?
04:33I will follow authorization and appropriations.
04:36The tech hubs will have an enormous amount of potential to make strides in artificial intelligence,
04:42in quantum computing, in advanced manufacturing, in addition to advancements in personalized medicine
04:49like the one that's housed in Wisconsin.
04:51Under your leadership, how will the Department of Commerce utilize innovation from these regional technology hubs?
04:59So, I'll give you a Wisconsin example.
05:02So, of the four number one supercomputers that were built at DOE, three were built in Wisconsin.
05:09And I was there.
05:09I went to go visit, and they not only do, you know, DOE computers, but many across the country,
05:15including for national security.
05:17Yes.
05:18So, Wisconsin's leadership of that and manufacturing, manufacturing of high-performance computers.
05:26And obviously, the workforce in Wisconsin was highly important in order for us to do that.
05:32So, I have personal experience in Wisconsin on workforce, on AI, and computing.
05:36And it was vitally important to me back then and will be vital for the country going forward.