Project 2025 - 21. The Department of Commerce

The author of chapter 21 of Project 2025, The Department of Commerce, is Thomas F. Gilman, who is the former Assistant Secretary of Commerce under the first Trump Administration. Prior to that worked in automotive services and supply at Chrysler for 27 years, 5 of which he served as CFO.

Project 2025 - Mandate for Leadership - The Conservative Promise

Gilman begins by blaming the Biden Administration and "Communist China" for America's economic decline, claiming a conservative presidency can help steer the U.S. back to the black, as it were. He wants to consolidate departments, eliminate grant programs, move the Patent Office to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), eliminating "non-mission-critical research functions," and dismantle the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and eliminate and/or privatize its functions. He praises the "many quality civil servants" working for the Dept. of Commerce, 791 of which were fired in the first days of the Trump Administration.

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY (OS)

Gilman recommends that the new administration fully-staff the OS, removing those who don't align and appointing political allies. He wants to remove any "gatekeepers" standing between department leadership and the budget, i.e. eliminate checks and balances in department spending. He believes the many department advisory committees to be full of "hostile activists," and wants them vetted. This would include the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations and the Census Scientific Advisory Committees.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE ADMINISTRATION (ITA)

Gilman says that conservatives believe federal trade decisions provide welfare and protection for the U.S. However, he does not think Congress will make drastic changes, and thus serving "conservative priorities is crucial." This would include countering U.S. trade "adversaries" (i.e. tariffs), securing access to supply chains, and holding up the private sector, which encourages profit generation, instead of the public sector, which aims to serve public interest without a motivation of profit.

"In the short term, this may mean higher costs for U.S. businesses and consumers on a limited number of products from certain offending countries." - Thomas F. Gilman

As most of us know by now, any tariffs on other countries are paid for by American pockets, including gas and oil from Canada, steel from Mexico and Brazil, and everything else from China.

In order to make these changes, Gilman wants to ensure policies are made only by Trump's political appointees, not career federal employees who might be "hostile adversaries." He wants to give focus to countries that invest heavily in the U.S. over smaller imports and restructure Industry & Analysis (I&A), which looks at industries and trade to strengthen U.S. competitiveness in the global market. This would include fully staffing with political appointees and a "trusted" staff that can focus on current policy issues, rather than lobbying for tariff reductions. Gilman wants the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service (CS), which protects U.S. business interests abroad, to have a bigger budget, but also consolidate its workforce.

BUREAU OF INDUSTRY AND SECURITY (BIS)

Gilman says the U.S. has failed to protect critical assets, allowing China to take the lead in technology, including battery energy storage, nuclear weapons capabilities, and space and aerospace engineering. He blames Export Control Reform (ECR), an effort to streamline and modernize the export of goods and technologies initiated by the Obama Administration, and wants it reversed. And any dealings with Russia and China, he says, need to have much stricter guidelines, including better licensing, reducing the de minimis threshold down to 0% (especially for critical technologies), reviewing "fundamental research" at U.S. universities, and tightening rules about exporting technology to foreign nationals from "countries of concern." Gilman also wants greater focus on data-transfer apps from foreign adversaries, including TikTok.

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA)

Gilman cuts to the chase.

"Break up NOAA." - Thomas F. Gilman

NOAA includes 6 main offices, including the National Weather Service (NWS), all of which he says have become "one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry."

"This industry's mission emphasis on prediction and management seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable." - Thomas F. Gilman

Gilman says that while NOAA provides environmental information services and applied scientific research, these services could be provided commercially at a lower cost and better quality. In fact, he thinks NWS should go commercial and monetize their data-gathering capabilities, "increase(ing) competition" (i.e. we will now have to fact-check the weather report to see which one we like the best). Gilman goes on to say he wants better hurricane prediction data that doesn't support "any one side in the climate debate."

A view of Camp Mystic, where 27 people were missing after flash flooding in Hunt, Texas, on July 5 - Getty Images

Gilman wants to withdraw the 30x30 Executive Order, instated by the Biden Administration, to protect 30% of America's land and 30% of its oceans by 2030. He says it will cut off too much commercial fishing and allow for too much offshore wind-energy development. He also wants to modify regulations implemented by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act, which he says come at a cost to fisheries and Native American Tribes. However, Congress added allowances for the tribes to hunt and fish, despite the former act, but the latter is still complicated when it comes to federal lands and sovereignty.

Flooding damage in Marshall, North Carolina, left the town decimated in the wake of Hurricane Helene in late September 2024 - The Washington Post

Gilman says the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), which includes the National Hurricane Center, should be downsized because it is a big part of NOAA's "climate alarmism." He wants the climate-change research disbanded and all the arms of the office, including undersea research and research institutes at universities, reduced of "bloat." He also wants the Marine and Aviation Operations wing of NOAA broken up and reassigned. This includes hurricane reconnaissance (flying into hurricanes to collect data) and oceanographic and fisheries research. Instead, he wants small startups to compete for the roles once managed by these defunct environmental agencies.

The money saved by squelching NOAA and its departments should be used to fully fund the Office of Space Commerce, Gilman says, putting the U.S. back in the role of global leader, and linking all departments to this coveted office.

BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS (BEA) AND THE OFFICE OF THE UNDERSECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

This department, Gilman says, could work better if it supported broader Administration goals (i.e. politically aligns), "objectively" providing economic data about the U.S. It should also combine the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics ("etc.") into one bureau for more efficiency.

Delaware Business Times

CENSUS BUREAU

Gilman, again, says this department should be gutted and reworked to include those willing to "execute a conservative agenda." The department, he says, has gotten too big for its britches, including economic and social demographics, and wants to downsize its data-accumulation. He does, however, want to reinstate the citizenship question, which was removed from the 2020 census.

The citizenship question was removed because it allowed the total number to include immigrant communities, their demographics, their economic status, and thus took them into consideration when counting the population for U.S. House of Representative seats as well as distribution of billions of dollars in federal funding, including to build schools and hospitals. Adding the citizenship question back in will remove the immigrant population from the census totals.

Gilman also wants the terms "race" and "ethnicity" combined on the census, which are very different. "Race" refers to physical characteristics such as skin color, whereas "ethnicity" has to do with your cultural background, language, or traditions. And he, again, wants to abolish the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations.

"The committee is a hotbed for left-wing activists intent upon injecting racial and social-justice theory into the government philosophy of the Census Bureau." - Thomas F. Gilman

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION (EDA)

Gilman says that the current Administration should abolish the Economic Development Administration (EDA), which helps build regional economies and distributed COVID funding during the pandemic. But he thinks Congress will never let that happen, so he instead says it should be gutted and filled with politically-aligned staff.

MINORITY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (MBDA)

On its face, Gilman says, this agency (which is "solely dedicated to the growth and competitiveness of minority-owned businesses) has the appearance of perpetuating racial bias. "This is why the Trump Administration proposed eliminating funding for the agency in 2017." But because he doesn't think Congress will change their minds about the issue, he instead recommends "conducting policy analysis on the benefit of free markets (and) the evils of socialism," evaluating the harmful effects of "unfair trade policies" on minority-owned businesses, and that the MBDA should have clear consequences for poor performance.

U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

Gilman wants to strengthen intellectual property (IP) (designs, manuscripts, etc.) protections by standing with like-minded countries, having the U.S. take the lead on technologies like AI and 5G, punishing counterfeiters, and opposing IP waivers for COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY (NIST)

Gilman wants to re-evaluate the cutting-edge research and science standards provided by NIST to make sure that "any research conducted with taxpayer dollars serves the national interest...in line with conservative principles."

NATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION SERVICE (NTIS)

Gilman says the purpose of this department, which is to make federally-funded research and data accessible to the public, is obsolete thanks to the internet and should be moved to the NIST.

NewAmerica.org

NATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION (NTIA)

The NTIA, which serves as the Executive Branch's lead on telecommunications and information policy, is suffering from "malaise," Gilman says, and he wants a robust overhaul. This would include rigorous free-speech standards online and punishment for companies that "censor" free speech, rapidly deploying 5G in rural areas, supporting the commercial space industry, and holding a strong seat at the International Telecommunication Union (part of the United Nations).

Ellie is an author, editor, and owner of Red Pencil Transcripts, and works with filmmakers, podcasts, and journalists all over the world. She lives with her family just outside of New York City.