Senate panel advances Biden’s Commerce secretary pick

President Biden’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department, Gina Raimondo, is heading to a Senate-wide vote after the Senate Commerce Committee advanced her in a broadly bipartisan 21-3 vote on Wednesday.

Raimondo, the current Democratic governor of Rhode Island, faced GOP opposition ahead of the committee vote, but ultimately just three Republicans — Ted Cruz (Texas), Marsha Blackburgn (Tenn.) and Rick Scott (Fla.) voted “no.”

Republicans had voiced concerns about comments Raimondo made about Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei. The Democrat had not clarified her stance on whether she would keep the Trump administration’s decision to put Huawei on the Commerce Department’s “entity list.”