Nancy L. Johnson: “The President and the members of the Cabinet are the President and the members of the Cabinet for all Americans, and I…”

“The President and the members of the Cabinet are the President and the members of the Cabinet for all Americans, and I am privileged to be here tonight to help you celebrate the life of Ron Brown and honor him as our former Secretary of Commerce and recognize the leadership he provided and the quality of the job he did. When I was first elected in 1982, I came here from a district that had been devastated by what we called in those days unfair foreign competition. Some of it was just a very strong dollar combined with an American industry that was not efficient and was not strong. I watched Mac Baldrige try to develop the Commerce Department into a fighting partner with American business in a developing international market. I saw him struggling through, trying to help us see the importance of developing a department of trade. I saw Mac Baldridge and some of his successors build the capability of the Department of Commerce to help American business get into the export market, sell abroad, be present in other markets in the same way foreign producers were present in our market, provide the same challenge in the world market that foreign producers were providing in our market. And that opening of vision that started with Mac Baldridge culminated in some really remarkable successes under the leadership of Secretary Brown.”