Earlier today President Obama announced his intention to request authority for a major reorganization of the executive branch. He would like to place the business and trade functions of the Department of Commerce, along with five other agencies, into a single agency (its future web home is called BusinessUSA). Congress would need to sign off on the reorganizations, as the President currently doesn’t have such authority (though the office did for a large portion of the 20th century). The five other agencies are the Small Business Administration (its’ head will take the reins of this new entity), the Export-Import Bank, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Trade and Development Agency.
So far one might wonder where the science and technology angle comes in. For that we have to look at what’s left. While ABC News is suggesting the Commerce Department might disappear after this reorganization, that shows a fundamental ignorance of all the Department does. It hosts a large number of science and technology agencies, including Read the rest of this entry »
