Senate confirms Gutierrez as Commerce secretary

The Senate Monday confirmed by voice vote the nomination of Carlos Gutierrez to head the Commerce Department.

Gutierrez, the chief executive officer of Kellogg Co., will replace Donald Evans, a close confidant of President Bush. Gutierrez, who was born in Cuba and began his career at Kellogg in Mexico as a salesman, becomes the first Hispanic to head the department.

At Kellogg, he has been credited with turning around the company by focusing on high-end products. As head of the cereal company, a large user of sugar, Gutierrez sought to end the federal sugar quota system, which drives up domestic prices. He told the Senate Commerce Committee at his nomination hearing that he would recuse himself from participating in sugar issues while at Commerce if government ethics lawyers ruled he had a conflict of interest.

In floor debate on his nomination, lawmakers said he will face pressure to reduce the federal trade deficit and address the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs, especially to China.

Senate Commerce ranking member Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said, "Just this month, our trade deficit hit an astounding and record-breaking $60.3 billion. And I'm sure that all of us will agree that this is entirely unacceptable."

Said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., "Corporations have discovered there are a billion people out there who will work for very little money ... There's someone in China today that's making Huffy bicycles. That man or woman took the job of someone in Ohio that had made $11 an hour."

But Gutierrez's confirmation was never in doubt. His life story and resume added up to a "great American success story by any measure," said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.