One pillar of Project 2025 is the Heritage Foundation's 180-day Transition Playbook—called Mandate for Leadership—which includes a transition plan for each federal agency. The chapter on the Department of Commerce was written by Thomas F. Gilman,¹ Commerce's Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration during the Trump Administration. In that role, Gilman oversaw all financial and management functions for the department's multi-billion-dollar budget as well as the administrative and personnel functions for its approximately 47,000 employees. Gilman asserts that the Department of Commerce possesses the expertise, programs, and authorities that will be crucial to the success of a conservative presidency and that its role in the federal bureaucracy would benefit from streamlining and reform.

"While many of the department’s functions fall outside the remit of the federal government," Gilman writes, "its unique authorities in diverse areas provide critical tools that can and should be brought to bear in implementing a conservative governing philosophy that keeps Americans safe and provides opportunity for all."

Gilman notes that the National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA) is the executive branch’s statutory lead on telecommunications and information policy, focusing on broadband access, spectrum utilization, and other issues that are crucial to the high-tech economy.

"For decades, NTIA has suffered from organizational malaise and will require strong and energetic leadership by political appointees to implement conservative policies," Gilman writes. He identified NTIA's primary challenge of rapidly deploying 5G wireless infrastructure.

Project 2025's Recommendations for NTIA

Gilman offers seven recommendations to allow the Department of Commerce to assist the next President in implementing a bold agenda to deliver economic prosperity and strong national security: 

• Support free speech and hold Big Tech accountable. Immediately conduct a thorough review of federal policy regarding free speech online and provide policy solutions to address Big Tech’s censorship of speech.
• Utilize new tools to eliminate threats to national security. Fully implement the Trump Administration’s Information and Communications Technology and Services (ICTS) Executive Order authorities in a way that ensures long-term success and the legal viability of this new national security tool.
• Expand utilization of federal spectrum. Begin short-term, temporary leasing of government-allocated spectrum to ensure optimum utilization while preserving federal agency use rights.
• Support the commercial space industry. Advocate for licensing decisions at the Federal Communications Commission that continue to enable U.S. dominance in the commercial space industry.
• Defend U.S. interests in international bodies. Strong representation at the International Telecommunication Union should protect the interests of both private and government users of spectrum. The U.S. has differing needs from many other countries, for instance, because of U.S. government satellites and the commercial space industry. NTIA should work with the U.S. delegation to ensure maximum adoption of the U.S. position.
• Review FirstNet. Evaluate the performance and long-term value proposition of FirstNet in view of modern technologies that will render it obsolete.
• Set fresh priorities in broadband grant programs. Reevaluate broadband grant programs and, when possible, establish Administration priorities in how each grant is structured. First and foremost, widespread deployment of infrastructure is needed for 5G adoption in rural and exurban areas, which will be a key factor in future economic competitiveness for these underserved communities.

Also see: Project 2025: Brendan Carr's Agenda for the FCC

Notes on the contributors

1. The author recognizes contributions to this chapter from James Rockas, Nazak Nikakhtar, Louis Heinzer, Robert Burkett, Iain Murray, Michael Gonzalez, David Legates, and Kristen Eichamer. 

• Prior to serving at the Department of Commerce, Gilman had a 40+ year career as a senior executive and entrepreneur within the global automotive industry. He worked in automotive manufacturing, automotive retailing, automotive financial services, and automotive supply, spendingt 22 years at Chrysler Corporation and 5 years at Chrysler Financial where he served as CFO. 
• James Rockas is the Director of Strategy and Global Government Affairs at the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). Prior to joining the ACLJ, James served in the U.S. Department of Commerce as Secretary Wilbur Ross’ Deputy Chief of Staff, as well as the Deputy Director of Policy & Strategic Planning and lead spokesman for the Department. James later served as Senior Advisor, Chief Policy Officer, and Deputy Chief Marketing Officer in the Office of the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Energy, and the Environment. Before his work in the Executive branch, James was a Legislative Assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives and worked on multiple political campaigns.
• Nazak Nikakhtar is a partner Wiley Rein LLP. Previously, she was the Department of Commerce’s Assistant Secretary for Industry & Analysis at the International Trade Administration (ITA). Nazak also fulfilled the duties of the Under Secretary for Industry and Security at Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). In these roles, Nazak was the agency’s primary liaison with U.S. industry and trade associations.
• Robert Burkett currently serves as Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff at ACLJ Action. Before his time at ACLJ Action, Burkett worked in international engagement at the Office of Industrial Base Policy in the U.S. Department of Defense. Previously, he has served as a Special Assistant and Senior Advisor in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce, a Legislative Assistant in the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor, and as a Legislative Assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Iain Murray is Vice President for Strategy and senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Murray also directs the Center for Economic Freedom. He is the author of “The Really Inconvenient Truths” and “Stealing You Blind: How Government Fat Cats Are Getting Rich Off of You.” He has written extensively on free markets and the environment, labor policy, finance, the EU, and trade. Before coming to CEI, Murray was Director of Research at the Statistical Assessment Service. 
• Mike Gonzalez, the Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, writes on critical race theory, identity politics, diversity, multiculturalism, assimilation and nationalism, as well as foreign policy in general. He spent close to 20 years as a journalist, 15 of them reporting from Europe, Asia and Latin America. He left journalism to join the administration of President George W. Bush, where he was speechwriter for Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox before moving on to the State Department’s European Bureau. Gonzalez, who joined Heritage in March 2009, became a Senior Fellow in June 2014 and a chaired fellow in 2019.
• David Legates is a Climatologist who specializes in precipitation and climate change as well as spatial statistics. Upon receiving his PhD, Legates became a Professor at the University of Oklahoma. He later moved to Louisiana State University and subsequently returned to the University of Delaware. He served as the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction and was detailed to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as the Executive Director of the United States Global Change Research Program. 
• Kristen Eichamer is an Advisor for Coalitions Communications at The Heritage Foundation.

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