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Lutnick Testifies on the Commerce Department's FY2026 Budget Before a House Appropriations Subcommittee, Jun. 5, 2025

June 5, 2025 · Just Sum News · 2:11:32

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick testified on the Department of Commerce’s fiscal year 2026 budget request before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies on June 5, 2025, the day after his Senate appearance on the same request. Chairman Hal Rogers opened by putting the request at $8.4 billion — a $1.8 billion, or 17 percent, decrease from the current level — with a 50 percent increase for the Bureau of Industry and Security to counter threats from China and protect America’s technological competitiveness, and a 20 percent increase for the Census Bureau, as he stated the figures. Rogers, whose district is in Eastern Kentucky, framed rural broadband expansion as one of the department’s most critical missions.

Members pressed Lutnick on the Census Bureau: citing an NPR report, a member raised the hiring freeze and the departure of five Census division or office chiefs, and concerns that Commerce Department staff accessing sensitive personal data at other agencies could undermine public trust in the Bureau. Lutnick answered that the department was not losing staff in ways it did not want “under any circumstances,” that it was able to fulfill all of its mission at the Census Bureau, and that the Bureau is “one of the great statistical places in our government,” as he put it. The hearing closed with the chairman praising the Secretary’s exuberance for the work and members given seven days to submit additional questions for the record.

Why it matters

The House hearing is the second half of Lutnick’s FY2026 budget defense, and its center of gravity is different from the Senate’s: where the Senate fought over tariffs and CHIPS, the House fought over the Census Bureau — the department’s statistical integrity ahead of the 2030 census cycle — and the Bureau of Industry and Security’s expanded export-control budget. Lutnick’s assurance that Census is fulfilling its full mission is the commitment the Bureau’s 2026 test and preparations will be measured against.

Sources: Just Sum News, “Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick testifies (June 4, 2025)” (hearing carry, embedded above; the upload’s title carries the Senate hearing’s June 4 date — the hearing in this carry, chaired by Rep. Rogers, is the House subcommittee’s June 5, 2025 hearing, per the House record and The Census Project’s hearing log; testimony as delivered by Secretary Lutnick and members of the subcommittee).