Raimondo’s new mission: Leave no cash for Trump

With a massive legacy program hanging in the balance, the Commerce secretary wants to get billions in microchip money out the door in the next two months.

ORIGINAL NOTE: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/20/raimondo-commerce-trump-legacy-00190538

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo speaks.

“I’d like to have really almost all of the money obligated by the time we leave,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in an interview with POLITICO. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is on an urgent mission: get as much high-tech spending out the door before Donald Trump takes office.

The Biden administration is aiming to commit nearly every unspent dollar in its $50 billion microchip-subsidy program before President-elect Donald Trump takes over in January, an effort that would effectively cement a massive industrial legacy before the GOP can reverse course.

“I’d like to have really almost all of the money obligated by the time we leave,” Raimondo said in an interview with POLITICO. “That’s the goal, and I certainly want to have all the major announcements done as it relates to the big, leading-edge companies.”

The effort to spend her department’s full CHIPS Act budget would put a capstone on a signature Biden economic policy.

It also speaks to the urgency facing a host of Biden’s historic raft of spending programs, many of which could be vulnerable to a Republican White House and Congress eager to pare back the most ambitious Democratic spending packages.

The Chips money alone is a massive undertaking. Congress allocated $50 billion in subsidies for semiconductor manufacturing and R&D. So far only two companies have received binding awards from the Department of Commerce’s manufacturing program. To hit her target, Raimondo still needs to nail down contracts with Intel, Micron, Samsung and SK hynix — multibillion-dollar deals that have, at times, been rocky and required renegotiations.

Raimondo said she recently directed staff to work through the weekend — and even made personal calls to tech CEOs — to speed the talks along.

The forthcoming change in administration is “a clear deadline” that “focuses the mind,” Raimondo said, but added she’s not overly concerned about budget-conscious Republicans clawing back money from the program next year, despite their threats to do so.

The CHIPS and Science Act passed both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support, and Raimondo said she expects that will withstand Trump’s arrival.

The Chips program is a key plank of Raimondo’s legacy at Commerce, which has morphed from something of a trade-promotion agency to one much more focused on national security under her watch.

When Trump’s administration takes the reins — Trump nominated financier Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary Tuesday — it will inherit an agency significantly different from even four years ago.

In a wide-ranging interview on the POLITICO Tech podcast, Raimondo took a long view of the shifts at Commerce, which under Biden has helped develop a significant chunk of the Washington tech agenda.

The department has handled not just microchip spending, but also the evolving rules around the powerful new artificial intelligence models, and organized the global AI safety summit being held Wednesday and Thursday in San Francisco.

“Now some people call me the Sec of Tech,” she said, “which is accurate.”

Though she didn’t specifically make predictions about Trump — and was interviewed before Lutnick was named — her end-of-term agenda is clearly shaped by the looming presence of the next president.

“The Commerce Department is somewhat unique in so far as everything we’ve done and are doing is bipartisan, and the CHIPS Act is a national security program and still has great bipartisan support to this day,” Raimondo said, adding she’s spoken with Hill Republicans, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn, as recently as last week.

In the interview, Raimondo described how Commerce has changed, what the challenges are, and how it has leaned into technology and security as touchstones — and why she doesn’t expect the GOP to radically reshape the agenda.

The highlights below have been condensed and edited from the interview.

ON THE DEPARTMENT’S SHIFT TOWARD HIGH-TECH DEVELOPMENT: “We’ve really transformed the size, scope and role of the Commerce Department over the past four years under the president’s leadership. And a lot of that is because we’re much more involved in technology. Now some people call me the Sec of Tech, which is accurate. For example, when the G7 has a tech ministers conference, I’m the one to go. I’m the tech minister for our country.

“But also, look, we are very much a national security focused agency now more than ever. And that’s because national security now more than ever revolves around technological security… I mean, national security isn’t just tanks and missiles. It is semiconductors. And AI models.”

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WITH THE $50 BILLION CHIPS PROGRAM: “I’m driving my team really hard right now. Worked all weekend. I’d like to have almost all of the money obligated by the time we leave. That’s the goal. And I certainly want to have all the major announcements done as it relates to the big leading edge companies. … I also would like to have all of that research and development money out the door by the time we leave as well.”

WHETHER THE GOP CAN ROLL BACK THE MONEY: “I don’t worry terribly about any of the chips money being rolled back, as you say. I mean, the Commerce Department is somewhat unique in so far as everything we’ve done and are doing is bipartisan. And the CHIPS Act is a national security program and still has great bipartisan support to this day. In fact, it was, you know, started in some ways in the Trump administration. [Former Commerce] Secretary Wilbur Ross and [former Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo sent a letter to TSMC to ask them to come here. The broadband is bipartisan. Our workforce work is bipartisan. So, look, anything’s possible, but I don’t worry too much about that.”

THE FUTURE OF AI SAFETY (and the summit that kicks off in San Francisco today): “I don’t think you can overestimate how significant this is. First of all, AI is the defining technology of our generation and is a huge game changer. And this [AI Safety Institute Summit] convening that I’m having this week in San Francisco is the first of its kind in the U.S. It’s the third global meeting in the past year, but it’s the first one the U.S. is hosting and leading, and we are going to be establishing a U.S. government task force on testing of AI models to manage national security capabilities. We’re going to be announcing new goals for the AI safety network. But mostly what I want to accomplish is getting the world’s leading scientists and technical experts together from countries all over the world on behalf of their government…

“This isn’t unlike other technologies, you know, nuclear technology or other technologies. There have been moments in the world’s history where new technology comes forward that is so powerful that we have to get the world together to agree on guardrails and restrictions and standards so that everybody is kept safe. Our interests are aligned even with some of our fiercest competitors like China. China is sending some of their scientists to this event. It is in no one’s interest anywhere on the planet for AI to develop in a way that is unsafe and that is harmful.”

WHETHER TRUMP WILL STAY THE COURSE ON AI POLICY: “Look, I can’t predict what the next president will do. And so I’m not going to speculate on who might do what.”

WHY TRUMP MIGHT STAY THE COURSE ANYWAY: “In less than a year under President Biden’s leadership, we have made a remarkable amount of progress — in a bipartisan way, I should note — to start to define what are the standards to keep us safe. And by the way, we’re doing this in partnership with the private sector. You know, when I’m here in San Francisco, I will be meeting with entrepreneurs, startup CEOs, venture capital investors, also some of the big hyperscalers. So, this isn’t really about us doing something to industry to slow them down, right? That’s not what this is about…. What this is about is fundamentally setting up the guardrails and standards to keep us all safe, to prevent, in fact, pernicious models getting in the hand of terrorists or non-state actors who could use it to proliferate chemical warfare.

“Nobody wants that to happen. The next administration doesn’t want that to happen. No country in the world wants that to happen. So are they going to put their stamp on the way to do this? I am sure. Every president does that.”

UNFINISHED BUSINESS ON CHINA: “There’s a few. Finishing the new rules around Chinese connected vehicles being sold in the U.S. We’re close to being finished and can finish, which will protect the American people. That being said, our competition with China requires day-by-day vigilance. I actually think, you know, when you said to me, ‘Why is the Commerce Department different now?’ A lot of it is because the threat is different. The world’s changed. National security has changed because technology now is such a core part of national security. You know, so many drones and undersea vehicles are not operated by human beings.

“So we’ve had to change. I’d say the same thing about China. If we rest on our laurels or get it all arrogant, we won’t win. They wake up every day quite vigilant. And we do, too. So when you say unfinished business with China, we’re never going to be finished.”

Christine Mui contributed to this report.

Raimondo’s new mission: Leave no cash for Trump

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Raimondo’s new mission: Leave no cash for Trump

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