Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick gave an emotional opening statement on Wednesday as he testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, sharing a bit about his life story that Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued is truly the embodiment of the “American spirit of resilience and achievement.”
Born and raised in New York, Lutnick suffered one of his first major life blows in his teens, losing his mother and father in the span of a year and a half, both to cancer. A graduate of Haverford College, Lutnick would go on to join financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald immediately afterwards, becoming the company’s president and CEO by 1991, and chairman five years later. Tragedy would again strike on Sept. 11, 2001, when Lutnick lost not only his brother in the terror attacks on the Big Apple, but 657 of his friends and colleagues at the company in what Cruz said “was the largest loss of life among any single organization” that day. Lutnick’s life was spared because he was late into work, having taken his son to his first day of kindergarten.
“On September 12th, I hosted a call with my surviving employees and laid out two choices: we could either attend our friends’ funerals – there were 20 funerals a day for 33 straight days – or we could try to rebuild the company to take care of the 658 families that lost a loved one," he said.
"This phone call led to one of the most extraordinary events in business history," Lutnick continued. "All of our employees, both new and those that survived, agreed to donate 25 percent of their salaries to the families of our 9/11 colleagues. Together, we gave them $180 million over the next five years, which stitched my soul back together.
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"My employees never expected to get paid back, but I had other ideas," he added. "In 2008, we took a division of our company public and each employee received double what they had given. I worked at Cantor Fitzgerald my entire career – 41 years. And rebuilding the company over the past 24 years is my greatest business achievement. After 9/11, we were down to about 1,000 employees. Now, the company employs more than 14,000."
Howard Lutnick opening statement at his confirmation hearing to be Secretary of Commerce. pic.twitter.com/lrjNSjgXhb
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 29, 2025
Lutnick also had the honor of being introduced by Vice President JD Vance:
.@VP: America needs a Commerce Secretary who is a product guy and a sales guy. If you look at his career, Howard Lutnick is the kind of guy who developed innovative products... This is a person who on the world stage will say more, do more, and convince businesses America is back pic.twitter.com/ZjoP8kkrfq
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 29, 2025
Lutnick vowed to divest in his business interests and assets within 90 days of his potential confirmation, noting that he has made enough money in life to take care of himself and his family and desires now to serve only the American people.
"I saw the strength of the American spirit during President Trump’s campaign, and it fueled my desire to serve our nation," he said. "We need healthy businesses – small, medium, and large – to hire our great American workers to drive our economy. I will dedicate myself to making our government more responsive, working to ensure Americans have the greatest opportunity for success."
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