Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has instructed staff to work overtime to expedite spending funds before Donald Trump takes office, a move a Republican senator described as “extremely concerning.”
“I’d like to have really almost all of the money obligated by the time we leave,” Raimondo told POLITICO, in reference to the $53 billion microchip program, which Congress passed as a part of the CHIPS Act. Raimondo set a “clear deadline” and asked her staff to work weekends to accomplish it, she said.
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, expressed criticism of Raimondo in a letter sent on Wednesday.
“Shoveling out heaps of taxpayer dollars as fast as possible, with little to no oversight, is part of the reason the United States government is nearly $36 trillion in debt today,” she wrote, saying $280 billion in COVID money may have gone to fraudsters under similar spend-it-as-fast-as-you-can circumstances.
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, criticized the Commerce Department’s recent spending, stating that it had spent as much CHIPS Act funding in the past month as it had since the program’s inception. In a letter to Secretary Gina Raimondo, Ernst urged her to “immediately suspend the shopping spree and halt awarding new grants until a new secretary is confirmed.”
Ernst questioned whether the department was bypassing standard contracting procedures to expedite spending and asked how it was coordinating with the Trump transition team on these efforts.
According to POLITICO, Raimondo’s goal involves negotiating multi-billion dollar deals with companies like Intel, Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix. However, progress has been slow, with only two deals finalized amid delays and cultural tensions.
The delays are partly attributed to Democratic priorities, such as diversity and union policies. A column in The Hill noted that while companies typically embrace “multi-billion dollar subsidies,” frustrations stem from DEI requirements embedded in the CHIPS Act. The law mandates 19 provisions aimed at supporting minority groups, including the establishment of a Chief Diversity Officer at the National Science Foundation.
Additionally, chipmakers must submit detailed plans to educate, employ, and train underrepresented groups, including women, people of color, and formerly incarcerated individuals. Republicans have pushed to remove these provisions, arguing that the focus should solely be on strengthening domestic chip production to reduce reliance on imports for this critical resource.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo isn’t the only Biden administration official taking steps that could limit Donald Trump’s options. According to The Daily Wire, outgoing Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley recently signed an agreement with his agency’s union to guarantee telework for employees through 2029.
Raimondo, who has branded herself as the “Secretary of Tech,” has emphasized Commerce’s role in shaping key issues like artificial intelligence. However, her approach has drawn criticism for appearing overly political, at times seemingly detracting from her primary responsibilities.
Following an assassination attempt on Trump, she reportedly remarked, “Let’s extinguish him for good.”
When the Department of Labor revised its job creation estimates and acknowledged that the numbers were 800,000 jobs worse than they had previously stated, Raimondo said “I don’t believe it because I have never heard Donald Trump saying anything truthful.” When her interviewer pointed out that they were official statistics from the Biden administration, the Commerce Secretary said “I don’t, I don’t, I’m not familiar with that.”
Raimondo previously served as a surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris during her presidential campaign. When the International Longshoremen’s Union threatened a major economic disruption by demanding a substantial pay raise, Raimondo acknowledged she had “not been very focused on that” and instead shifted her attention to criticizing Trump.
