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Lutnick Testifies on the Commerce Department's FY2026 Budget Before a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, Jun. 4, 2025

June 4, 2025 · Just Sum News · 1:56:06

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What happened

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick testified on the President’s fiscal year 2026 budget request for the Department of Commerce before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies on June 4, 2025. The chairman’s opening laid out the request as the committee received it: a 16.5 percent reduction in budget authority for the department, including a $1.5 billion reduction for NOAA and a $325 million reduction for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the eventual elimination of the Economic Development Administration, as he stated the figures — cuts he said must not harm manufacturing jobs or American exports.

In his prepared testimony, Lutnick said the department was improving the commitments under the CHIPS and Science Act semiconductor awards to more than $300 billion — doubling the previous investment of the companies receiving awards — without costing the taxpayer an additional dollar, as he stated it. He described the Patent and Trademark Office tackling a backlog of more than 800,000 unexamined patent applications left by the prior administration and reducing it for the first time in four years, with 50,000 fraudulent goods and services removed from the trademark register in four months, as he stated the figures, and pointed to Section 232 investigations as concrete action to protect American workers and revive manufacturing capacity.

The sharpest exchange came with Senator Kennedy, who pressed Lutnick on whether he would accept a hypothetical offer from Vietnam to mutually eliminate all tariffs and trade barriers. “Absolutely not. That would be the silliest thing we could do,” Lutnick answered, arguing that Vietnam exports $125 billion to the United States while buying some $90 billion of its goods from China — “it’s just a pathway of China to us,” as he put it. Challenged on whether the administration truly sought reciprocity, he clarified: “We are absolutely seeking reciprocity with respect to things that can be reciprocal.”

Why it matters

This is Lutnick’s first full Senate statement of the Commerce budget he runs: a smaller department whose savings he defends by pointing at renegotiated CHIPS commitments, a Section 232 investigation program, and a patent office working down its backlog. The Kennedy exchange is the clearest on-record explanation of the administration’s tariff logic — reciprocity does not mean mutual zero tariffs where a partner transships Chinese goods — and the NOAA, NIST and EDA cuts in the chairman’s opening are the contested record the appropriations outcome will be checked against.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: Lutnick’s FY2026 claims as he stated them on June 4, 2025 — CHIPS award commitments improved to more than $300 billion at no additional taxpayer cost, the patent backlog being reduced for the first time in four years, and 50,000 fraudulent trademark registrations removed. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: Just Sum News, “Secretary Lutnick Testifies on 2026 Budget Request and Trade Tariffs (June 4, 2025)” (hearing carry, embedded above; testimony as delivered by Secretary Lutnick and members of the subcommittee; prepared-testimony figures as also carried in the hearing record).