The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza reports that New Mexico governor and underwhelming former presidential candidate Bill Richardson will be Secretary of Commerce. This raises a couple of questions:  What does the Commerce Dept. do and how will it be changed by Bill Richardson?

According to their official Web site, the Commerce Dept. promotes economic growth, technological competitiveness, sustainable development, and international trade. These sound like big issues. But despite the economic collapse, Dept. activity has not exactly been grabbing headlines. Here at Understanding Government, our Commerce blogging has been limited to a few snarky posts about problems collecting the 2010 census.

A few stories that we missed concerned the Department’s work in producing economic stats like consumer spending, business investment, and GDP.

So Richardson will not lead a high-profile agency. But he could still have an impact, particularly on trade and immigration policy. These were the two areas where current Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez was, at the very least, a visible spokesman for the Bush administration. Like Gutierrez, Richardson is expected to be the highest-ranking administration member with a Latino background, so he might continue the Dept’s work on immigration policy. But presumably Richardson will take a more skeptical stance toward a Colombia trade agreement than Gutierrez, who went to bat for the pro-free-trade Bush.

Also, according to the Nov. 1 Detroit Free Press, Gutierrez was "quarterbacking for the administration in talks with the automotive industry." If Richardson takes up this issue, he — and his department — could impact the lives of thousands of American workers and consumers early in the Obama administration.-MB

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