Commemorating the 100th Birthday of the Department on Commerce

Feb. 14, 2003

COMMEMORATING THE 100TH BIRTHDAY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

    Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, on February 14, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill that established the Department of Commerce. In doing so he authorized the creation of what had been, to date, one of the largest and most complicated departments in the Federal Government. The original Department of Commerce was responsible for an overwhelming set of tasks, including the administration of the census, and the development of foreign and domestic commerce.

    Over the past decade the Commerce Department's role has evolved, but it has always kept the vitality of American industry as its core value. My State has a lot at stake in the daily operations of this department; among its original duties was the supervision of the Alaskan fur-seal harvest and our State's salmon fisheries.

    When the House debated the Commerce Department's founding in 1903, Congressman Robert Mann of Indiana noted that the Department was possibly the best hope we had of saving the Alaska salmon fisheries from extinction. Alaska assumed control of its salmon fisheries after Statehood, but the Commerce Department is still involved with our fisheries. One hundred years later the people of Alaska work closely with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service to manage the most productive groundfish fisheries in the world in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska.

    The past century has confirmed what the groups and individuals who originally lobbied for the Department of Commerce knew 100 years ago; ours is a distinctly commercial and industrial nation. The ingenuity of our workers, the dedication of our citizens and the perseverance demonstrated by our entrepreneurs are what make our Nation's economy unique and enduring. However, ingenuity, dedication and perseverance remain untapped resources without leadership and guidance to help them fulfill their potential. For 100 years the Department of Commerce has provided that leadership.

    In 1981, Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige wrote that the Commerce Department's mission was to "serve the nation, its business community, and its individual citizens." That mission lives today in the daily work of the Department and in the leadership of Secretary Don Evans. I have served with seventeen Secretaries of Commerce since I first came to the Senate, and consider many from both parties, including Malcolm Baldrige, Bill Daley, Norm Mineta, and of course Don Evans, to be my good friends.

    Today, on behalf of all Alaskans, I congratulate the Department on a century of great achievement.