‘It’s a disaster over there’: Department of Commerce reaches new heights of dysfunction

Constant infighting among top officials. Sudden departures of senior staffers without explanation. A leader who is disengaged and prone to falling asleep in meetings. The Commerce Department has reached its apex of dysfunction under Sec Wilbur Ross. The 81-year-old Commerce secretary, who has for months endured whispers that he is on the outs, spends much of his time at the White House to try to retain President Donald Trump’s favor, leaving his department adrift. Top Commerce officials have pushed to not have Ross called to testify at congressional oversight hearings, apparently, because they fear he isn’t up to the task. 

Much of the tension inside the building has centered on Earl Comstock, who shepherded Ross’s confirmation on Capitol Hill and is one of the secretary’s top lieutenants as the department's policy director. Comstock has also been at the center of many of the spectrum battles between the Federal Communications Commission and the departments of Transportation, Education, and Commerce and NASA and NOAA. He has “literally been seeding bad intel and bad information to get other people agitated,” said one official. He also tried to scuttle a joint White House-FCC summit on 5G, the wireless technology, in April by “calling everyone he could 24 hours before the event trying to get it to be canceled,” this person said. Comstock clashed in particular with former National Telecommunications and Information Administration chief David Redl, who left his post abruptly in May.