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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, today delivered questions to Commerce Secretary nominee Wilbur Ross during his confirmation hearing. The transcript of Senator Fischer’s exchange with Mr. Ross is below:
Senator Fischer:
As you know, the Department of Commerce has put a lot of work into thinking of ways to encourage the growth of the ‘Internet of Things,’ and I commend the Department for those efforts.
Senators Booker and Gardner and Schatz and myself, we recently reintroduced the DIGIT Act, which would create a working group convened by the Department of Commerce to make recommendations to Congress on ways to advance the ‘Internet of Things.’
As secretary, would you plan to continue the department’s efforts to collaborate with both private stakeholders and other government entities, including Congress, to encourage the development of the ‘Internet of Things’
Wilbur Ross:
Well, I think all aspects of internet need encouragement. There are issues: technical issues, privacy issues, and such as that come up. So it’s not a simple subject.
But, when President-elect Trump convened the meeting of the high-tech CEOs some weeks ago, he was kind enough to have me be very much involved with that. And I was impressed with how willing the high-tech people were to work with the new administration to try and deal with these kinds of issues. Even though, as it happens, during the campaign, we were not necessarily the recipient of much support from them.
So I think that was a very good thing, and some of those leaders have followed up with me subsequently with some more specific suggestions. So I look forward to a constructive relationship in that series of areas.
Sen Fischer:
That’s good to hear. As you know, the ‘Internet of Things’ when we look at all that can be created, and the innovation that takes place, and really the business growth for entrepreneurs, it’s going to be a huge area of growth in this sector, and one that I’ve enjoyed working with on a bipartisan basis with members of this committee.
We also discussed, during our meeting, that agriculture is the economic engine of the state of Nebraska. In fact, cattle outnumber people four-to-one in our state. And Nebraskans work very hard to produce food, fiber, and fuel for the rest of the world. In 2015, Nebraska’s agricultural exports amounted to roughly $6.4 billion. And of that, our delicious Nebraska beef exports accounted for about $1 billion. And that is why access to global markets is really extremely important to my constituents, all the people of Nebraska.
If confirmed, what approach do you believe that you will take to ensure that we have those global market opportunities and that they are available for industries, like Nebraska, where we can continue to grow and develop?
Wilbur Ross:
Well, agriculture certainly is one of the industries where we remain the world leader in technology and in execution. So it’s one of the very strong points of our economy. Second of all, many of the other countries, our trading partners, literally cannot feed themselves, so they’re going to have to buy food from somewhere outside.
Take China, for example, only 13 percent of that huge land mass is arable because so much of it is dessert, so much is mountainous, so much is just not farmable. So there are some structural disadvantages that many of our trading partners have where they very much need us. I think that is actually not something to be feared in those negotiations; I think it’s one of our strengths.
Senator Fischer:
Yes, obviously.
Wilbur Ross:
Soybeans come from two places: U.S. and Brazil. I don’t know where they would get the soybeans if they somehow tried to cut us off.
Senator Fischer:
Right, thank you.
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