Haley Stevens: “On February 14, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill that established the Department of Commerce. In doing…”

“On February 14, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill that established the Department of Commerce. In doing so he authorized the creation of what had been, to date, one of the largest and most complicated departments in the Federal Government. The original Department of Commerce was responsible for an overwhelming set of tasks, including the administration of the census, and the development of foreign and domestic commerce. Over the past decade the Commerce Department's role has evolved, but it has always kept the vitality of American industry as its core value. My State has a lot at stake in the daily operations of this department; among its original duties was the supervision of the Alaskan fur-seal harvest and our State's salmon fisheries. When the House debated the Commerce Department's founding in 1903, Congressman Robert Mann of Indiana noted that the Department was possibly the best hope we had of saving the Alaska salmon fisheries from extinction. Alaska assumed control of its salmon fisheries after Statehood, but the Commerce Department is still involved with our fisheries.”