The department has 53,000 employees and a budget of $11.8 billion.
President Bill Clinton names political operative Ron Brown to be Secretary of Commerce. Brown’s tenure is marred by investigations into how he used taxpayer-financed foreign trade junkets to raise ...
The International Trade Administration is created in Commerce. The ITA’s activities include subsidizing exports and enforcing barriers to imports.
The Office of Energy Programs in Commerce is moved to the new Department of Energy.
The National Technical Information Service is created.
The Office of Minority Business Enterprise is created. Today it is called the Minority Business Development Agency.
The transportation activities of Commerce are moved to the new Department of Transportation.
The Office of Business Economics, which will later be named the Bureau of Economic Analysis, is established.
The Department of Commerce is born when the Bureau of Labor is split off to form the new Department of Labor. An official history of the Department of Labor notes that its founding "was the direct ...
The Department of Commerce and Labor is established with about 10,000 employees. Today, the Department of Commerce has about 40,000 employees in non-census years.
The Census Office is given permanent status. Previously, an organization to carry out the census was created and disbanded every ten years.
In his first State of the Union address, President Theodore Roosevelt calls for the creation of a Secretary of Commerce and Industries. The purpose is to create a "comprehensive and far-reaching sc...
A national weather service is established under the Signal Corps of the U.S. Army. Later housed in the Department of Agriculture, it is transferred to Commerce in 1940.
The Department of State begins collecting information about foreign trade regulations. This activity expands over time and is moved to Commerce in 1903.
The Department of Treasury begins collecting and publishing statistics on foreign trade. Treasury’s collection of economic data expands in subsequent decades, and the activity is moved to Commerce ...