Hightower Nomination Hearing Summary

On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on the nomination of Dennis Hightower to be Deputy Secretary of the Department of Commerce, the Department's chief operations officer responsible for the day-to-day management of the Department's $17 billion budget and more than 38,000 employees. Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) noted Hightower's record at Walt Disney and Europe Online Networks -- and teaching at the Harvard Business School. "[Y]our ability to think strategically will undoubtedly help to shape the long-term policy direction of the Department," Chairman Rockefeller said. Mr Hightower said, "America must now act with a renewed sense of urgency. Our global competitors are neither standing still nor shy about taking action to exert their global economic ambitions. America must demonstrate not only a willingness to take action, but we must put in place the appropriate metrics to help us know when we have achieved the intended results. As I look at the challenges facing America and the Department of Commerce, I am reminded of a saying that defined the mission of one of the elite fighting forces I was a member of, and that is: 'Rangers lead the way!'"