Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via AP Images
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo speaks at a press briefing at the White House, September 6, 2022, in Washington.
In her first seven months as commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo met with or spoke in front of 230 CEOs, top executives, or industry trade groups, an average of more than one meeting per day, according to calendar logs recently released under a Freedom of Information Act request.
The list includes six meetings with Apple CEO Tim Cook, three with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, three with Microsoft Vice Chairman Brad Smith (and two with the company’s CEO, Satya Nadella), two with Google/Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and one with Facebook’s former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. Aside from these heavy hitters, Raimondo met with other lead executives at tech firms like Airbnb, Lyft, PayPal, eBay, Salesforce, IBM, Rakuten, and more. There are three Cook meetings with Raimondo just between August 25 and September 30, 2021.
Some of Raimondo’s meetings with tech industry leaders have been reported previously, upon the release this summer of the March and April 2021 calendars. But the assignations with corporate America go well beyond tech, touching defense contractors, financial institutions, airlines, pharmaceutical companies, automotive firms, and more.
Between March and September 2021, Raimondo has spoken at board meetings and forums of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Travel Association, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, the National Association of Home Builders, Autos Drive America, the Payments Leadership Council, the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the U.S. Lumber Coalition, the National Council of Textile Organizations, the World Economic Forum Alliance of CEOs, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the Business Roundtable.
In one calendar day, on September 2, 2021, Raimondo held a Zoom meeting with Blackstone president and COO Jonathan Gray; a call with BlackRock chairman and CEO Larry Fink; a Zoom meeting with Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes; a call with Rob Hale, CEO of Granite Telecom; a virtual meeting with Boston Scientific chairman and CEO Mike Mahoney; and a virtual meeting with the leadership of the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association.
Almost none of the meetings with business leaders were disclosed publicly before the release of the calendars, other than meetings attended by President Biden.
In a statement, a Commerce Department spokesperson said, “As the Secretary of Commerce, Secretary Raimondo’s job is to engage with a broad spectrum of industry, labor, environmental groups, members of Congress and other stakeholders to advance President Biden’s priorities and hear diverse perspectives on a number of issues.” But while members of Congress do appear in the calendar logs, and other stakeholders more sparingly, the preponderance of business leaders is glaring.
Advocacy organizations that have sought Raimondo’s calendar information have expressed frustration at the Commerce Department’s unwillingness to release it. Other government officials, like Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell and Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler, regularly release their calendars. Advocates even complained to members of Congress about the Commerce Department’s lack of transparency.
Even now, after five months of releases in the past two weeks, the calendars only go up to September 2021, leaving over a year of Raimondo’s activities unavailable to public scrutiny.
RAIMONDO WAS SWORN IN as the nation’s 40th commerce secretary on March 3, 2021; the meetings with business leaders started within days. Raimondo’s close relationship with the business community has drawn fire from the left, particularly when there was speculation that she would become the next Treasury secretary if Janet Yellen stepped down. That talk has cooled, as Raimondo’s portfolio at Commerce has expanded. She controls $100 billion in funds for semiconductor manufacturing and broadband development, through various new laws. President Biden has leaned heavily on Raimondo, a close confidant, to direct his administration’s industrial policy.
“Secretary Raimondo is proud of her work to get the business community and labor unions on board with key components of the President’s agenda, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS Act, which will revitalize American manufacturing for decades to come,” the Commerce Department spokesperson said. “In the future, Secretary Raimondo looks forward to engaging business leaders to generate additional support for key Biden Administration priorities, including expanded access to affordable child care, which would enable millions more American women to participate in the workforce.”
It’s true that the commerce secretary’s role does require at least some understanding of the interests of the business community. But what comes through reading the logs is the sheer breadth of discussions with corporate CEOs across sectors, both within and without Raimondo’s sphere of influence. “In statute, the Commerce Department runs a bunch of disparate, wonky subagencies with issues of interest to the country,” said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, one of the organizations that has been seeking Raimondo’s calendar logs. “The popular consciousness is that Commerce is the Cabinet official who sucks up to corporate America.”
For example, given the importance of the CHIPS Act, which directs $52 billion for homegrown semiconductor manufacturing, and Raimondo’s role as administration point person on that legislation, it’s to be expected that she had persistent contact with the heads of semiconductor firms like Intel, TSMC, GlobalFoundries, AMD, Micron, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, and others. (Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger appears on Raimondo’s calendar eight times in this period, the most of any corporate executive.) Auto companies need computer chips and are partnering with semiconductor manufacturers, so of course the CEOs of General Motors and Ford and Mercedes-Benz are on the schedule.
Similarly, Raimondo’s control of broadband build-out funds from the bipartisan infrastructure law are undoubtedly why the heads of telecoms like AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast, and Verizon are on the calendar.
But Raimondo has no particular portfolio in health care, yet the CEOs of Amgen, Eli Lilly, Medtronic, CVS, Pfizer, and Merck appear on the calendars. There isn’t a specific portfolio on defense policy, yet Raimondo has talked to the CEO of Raytheon twice, the CEO of Boeing twice, the CEO of Lockheed Martin three times, and the CEO of General Dynamics once. Despite no specific policy role for Commerce in the financial industry, the schedule is littered with discussions with bank and investment company leaders, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citi, BlackRock, Blackstone, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Warburg Pincus, and Bloomberg LP. Travel companies like Hilton and Carnival Cruise Line appear. Old-line manufacturers like 3M and Johnson Controls have gotten an audience with Raimondo.
Much of this may have to do with Raimondo’s role in trade policy, where pharmaceutical patents, access to markets for financial services, financing of international deals for large items (like Boeing planes), and other issues are prominent. Raimondo is leading the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), a pseudo-trade deal designed to keep the U.S. dominant in Asia. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is also part of the Commerce Department, which could explain the drug company CEO discussions.
Tech concerns are paramount in global trade as well, particularly with the IPEF. Raimondo has gotten into trouble with Big Tech critics by criticizing proposed European Union regulations that would target U.S. tech firms. Raimondo made those comments in December 2021, after the numerous meetings with tech CEOs chronicled in the calendar logs.
But even if Raimondo has a valid reason for some of these meetings, the overall corporate bias is undeniable. The interests of some of the patchwork of Commerce Department subagencies generally do not factor into Raimondo’s calendars. For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a scientific agency that explores and monitors weather conditions, but Raimondo took no meetings with climatologists or climate scientists, according to a review of the logs. She did, however, meet with Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, on May 10, 2021. The Census Bureau is also part of Commerce, but meetings with economists or demographers are rare.
Finally, Raimondo has granted little time to those involved in business outside the C-suite. There are hardly any entries in Raimondo’s calendar of meetings with union leaders or public-interest groups.
“Whenever you have a principal, whether president or a senator or a governor, the way you identify their priorities is by how they allocate their time, their most precious resource,” said Jeff Hauser. “It’s not like the commerce secretary would be ignorant of the preferences of corporate America if she did not meet with corporate CEOs.”
Maria Langholz, communications director at Demand Progress, another organization that sought Raimondo’s calendars, said in a statement, “This record of meetings with Big Tech and other executives affirms concerns expressed by people like Senator Warren: Commerce shouldn’t act as the Chamber of Commerce’s lobbyist—nor should it primarily serve as a forum for networking with potential donors to a future political campaign.” The reference to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) nods to her continued questioning of Raimondo’s contacts with Big Tech and hiring of former tech executives.
The full calendars can be found at the website of the Commerce Department’s Office of Privacy and Open Government.
