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Commerce nominee recounts personal losses and business recovery in opening statement at 2025 confirmation hearings
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Summary
At a 2025 Senate confirmation hearing, the Secretary of Commerce nominee opened with a personal biography that recounted family tragedies, the loss of company employees on Sept. 11 and a large employee-led fundraising effort; he framed those experiences as informing his pledge to make the department outcome-driven and more responsive.
Secretary of Commerce nominee spoke at a 2025 Senate confirmation hearing, opening with a personal biography that included the deaths of both parents, the loss of employees in the Sept. 11 attacks and a company-led recovery effort that raised funds for victims' families.
The nominee said he was "profoundly grateful to President Trump for the confidence and faith he has placed in me" and that "it is an honor to appear before you as your nominee for secretary of commerce." He described his commitment to public service and promised, if confirmed, to take "a thoughtful and rigorous approach to leading this great department and serving our country."
The nominee recounted family details and losses: his mother died in February 1978 when he was 16, and his father died in September 1979 after a chemotherapy dosing error, which the nominee said occurred a week after dropping him off at college. He said he and his sister Edie cared for a younger brother after those deaths.
He described the impact of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on his business. The nominee said his company—located on the upper floors of the World Trade Center—lost 657 colleagues at that site and that no one in that office survived. He said he was taking his son to kindergarten the morning of the attacks.
The nominee told the committee that surviving employees "agreed to donate 25% of their salaries" to the families of the colleagues who died and that "together we raised $180,000,000 over the next 5 years for those families." He said the company later took a division public in 2008 and he distributed to employees "double of what they had given to those families."
He summarized his business record as spanning 41 years, with a company workforce that fell to about 1,000 after Sept. 11 and now employs more than 14,000, and cited those experiences as evidence of his leadership. The nominee said he would "dedicate myself to making our government more responsive, working to ensure Americans have the greatest opportunity for success."
The nominee closed by thanking committee leadership and saying he looked forward to taking questions. No formal committee action or votes were recorded in the provided transcript excerpt.
