As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, earlier this month an official from the U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC) warned that many activities at USDOC—such as the activities of the USDOC’s International Trade Administration (ITA) and the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service—will have to be scaled back due to the sequester.
Deputy Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank called the spending cuts “drastic, arbitrary and deep.”
Honestly, though, the cuts seem fine to us. Heritage has long been on record as recommending cuts to the USDOC budget and has questioned the effectiveness of many of that agency’s programs. For example, USDOC offers to sell overseas information and market research to U.S. companies looking to invest and trade. But this information about countries and regions can be obtained more quickly and less expensively from very competent private U.S. consulting companies and investment banks.
So, we say to USDOC’s sequester efforts—good job!
