President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, passed a key procedural vote in the Senate on Thursday, clearing the path for his final confirmation vote. 

The Senate’s vote this afternoon to invoke cloture ended the debate on Lutnick’s nomination and paved the way for his confirmation as Commerce secretary. Senators advanced his nomination by a 52-45 vote. Republicans control the Senate by a 53-47 majority. 

Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald and a co-chair of Trump’s 2024 presidential transition team, needed a majority vote to bring his final confirmation vote to the Senate floor. 

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee voted 16-12 on February 5 to advance Lutnick to the procedural vote. Lutnick testified for over three hours before the Senate Commerce Committee on January 29. 

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If confirmed, Lutnick will become one of the wealthiest people to serve in a presidential administration, along with Elon Musk and Trump himself. During Lutnick’s confirmation hearing, he committed to selling all of his interests and assets if confirmed. 

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"My plan is to only serve the American people. So I will divest — meaning I will sell all of my interests, all of my business interests, all of my assets, everything," Lutnick said. "I've worked together with the Office of Government Ethics, and we've reached agreement on how to do that, and I will be divesting within 90 days upon my confirmation."

Lutnick said selling his businesses would prevent a conflict of interest. 

"Upon confirmation, my businesses will be for sale and someone else will lead them going forward," Lutnick added. 

Trump announced Lutnick’s nomination two weeks after he was elected president. 

"I am thrilled to announce that Howard Lutnick, Chairman & CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, will join my Administration as the United States Secretary of Commerce. He will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative," Trump said. 

Trump applauded Lutnick’s leadership during the presidential transition, saying he "created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen."

With Lutnick teed up to lead Trump’s "Tariff and Trade agenda," he faced questions during his confirmation hearing about tariff policy. Lutnick said the argument that tariffs create inflation is "nonsense." 

"We are treated horribly by the global trading environment. They all have higher tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers and subsidies. They treat us poorly. We need to be treated better. We can use tariffs to create reciprocity," Lutnick said.

Lutnick testified that he shares Trump’s stance on tariffs, adding he prefers an "across-the-board" strategy to "country-by-country" tariffs. 

Trump on Monday announced a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports from all countries, adding up to a 35% tariff for Chinese steel and aluminum imports. The tariffs are set to go into effect on March 12. 

Federal Communication Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr has opened an investigation into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices at Comcast and NBCUniversal.

Carr wants to ensure that Comcast, which owns multiple assets including NBCUniversal, is not promoting unfair forms of discrimination in violation of FCC regulations and civil rights laws. Carr, who was selected to serve as FCC chairman by President Trump, said the administration has already taken quick and decisive actions to root out the scourge of DEI. 

"President Trump is leading America away from the scourge of invidious DEI discrimination and ensuring that everyone in this country has a fair shot at succeeding. Discriminatory DEI programs cannot be squared with this country’s civil rights laws and following President Trump’s leadership the FCC will ensure that every company we regulate ends illegal DEI programs," Carr told Fox News Digital. 

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Carr sent a lengthy letter to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts on Tuesday, informing the Philadelphia-based company’s top executive of the probe.

"I am writing to inform you that I have asked the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation into Comcast and NBCUniversal. In particular, I want to ensure that your companies are not promoting invidious forms of discrimination in violation of FCC regulations and civil rights laws," Carr wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News Digital. 

"As you know, the Communications Act and Commission rules prohibit regulated entities—like Comcast and NBCUniversal—from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, or gender. Indeed, the FCC’s longstanding Equal Employment Opportunity or EEO rules set forth specific requirements that both Comcast and NBCUniversal must adhere to," the letter continued. "Nonetheless, I am concerned that Comcast and NBCUniversal may be promoting invidious forms of DEI in a manner that does not comply with FCC regulations."

Carr then noted that Comcast promotes DEI as "a core value of our business" online and public reports state that the company has an entire "DEI infrastructure" that includes annual "DEI day[s]," "DEI training for company leaders" and other similar initiatives.

"NBCUniversal has similar DEI initiatives, including executives specifically dedicated to promoting DEI across the TV and programming side of the business," Carr wrote. 

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"But promoting invidious forms of discrimination cannot be squared with any reasonable interpretation of federal law. It can only deprive Americans of their rights to fair and equal treatment under the law," he continued. "Despite the emergence of DEI initiatives in recent years, these forms of discrimination have long been condemned by America’s civil rights laws."

Carr noted that the Supreme Court has stated "distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality" and has written that racial classifications "threaten to stigmatize individuals by reason of their membership in a racial group and to incite racial hostility." 

Carr added that Trump has already "issued an Executive Order that will end the radical and wasteful DEI programs that have spread across the federal government" and issued another executive order to "end illegal discrimination and restore merit-based opportunity across the private sector." 

"At my direction, the FCC has already taken action to end its own promotion of DEI. As a next step, the FCC will be taking fresh action to ensure that every entity the FCC regulates complies with the civil rights protections enshrined in the Communications Act and the agency’s EEO rules, including by shutting down any programs that promote invidious forms of DEI discrimination," Carr wrote. 

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"I am starting this broader effort with Comcast and NBCUniversal for two reasons. First, as noted above, there is substantial evidence that your companies are still engaging in the promotion of DEI. Second, your companies cover a range of sectors regulated by the FCC—from cable to high-speed Internet and from broadcast TV stations to MVNO wireless offerings," Carr continued. "Therefore, I expect that this investigation into Comcast and its NBCUniversal operations will aid the Commission’s broader efforts to root out invidious forms of DEI discrimination across all of the sectors the FCC regulates."

Comcast provided Fox News Digital with the following statement: "We have received an inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission and will be cooperating with the FCC to answer their questions. For decades, our company has been built on a foundation of integrity and respect for all of our employees and customers."

Carr was previously the senior Republican member of the FCC, first nominated to the commission by Trump in 2017.

Washington state's attorney general is standing by Costco as the retail giant resists conservative pressure to ditch its diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

This week, 19 Republican attorneys general sent a letter to Costco, urging the retail giant to end "all unlawful discrimination imposed by the company" through its "divisive" DEI policies. 

The attorney general for Washington state, where Costco's headquarters are located, defended the company and fired back at the Republican effort.

"I’m surprised by my Republican colleagues’ eagerness to weaponize the government against business," Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, a Democrat, told Fox News Digital. "We don’t believe in punishing private companies for making decisions that protect and enhance their workforce."

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Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, who led the 19-state effort against Costco alongside Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, vowed to "look at all available options" to ensure the business is following federal and state laws regarding race-based or gender identity-based hiring practices.

"Costco needs to show us the proof that they are following the law because they have public statements that cause us great concern," Bird said Wednesday to Fox News. "Many other big retailers have changed their policies and are now following federal law, just like President Trump is doing with his executive orders rooting out DEI, so they need to show us they're following the law."

Attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska and North Dakota also signed the letter, which gives Costco 30 days to respond.

The letter comes on the heels of Trump signing an executive order targeting DEI in the federal government and encouraging the private sector to end these "illegal" practices.

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The order tasks the attorneys general with rooting out sectors and organizations that allegedly engage in discriminatory DEI practices. Recommendations will be made for potential lawsuits against violators.

Major companies like Target, McDonald's and Walmart have backed off from their DEI policies in recent months amid growing scrutiny over these policies. 

Costco has thus far resisted these challenges and defended DEI values as critical to the success of its business. 

"We owe our success to the more than 300,000 employees who serve our members every day. It is important that they all feel included and appreciated and that they transmit these values to our customers," Costco board chair Hamilton "Tony" E. James said at the shareholder meeting Thursday.

At that meeting, Costco shareholders overwhelmingly rejected an anti-DEI proposal brought by a conservative shareholder group to evaluate the risks posed by its DEI practices to the company's bottom line.

James said that the company's "commitment to inclusion" neither compromises merit nor includes quotas or systematic preferences.

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Constitutional law attorney and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that, "absent an unlawful policy, businesses have the right to make their own employment decisions within the parameters of the law."

"That includes mandatory training on DEI. Customers obviously have the right to make their own judgment in purchases, as shown by the response to Bud Light and Disney. However, state AGs need to be mindful of the countervailing speech and other rights afforded to corporations and organizations," he added in an emailed statement.

Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of the remaining 30 state attorneys general that did not sign off on the letter to Costco to ask if they would be taking any action, for or against the business, after Trump's executive order. 

A spokesperson for Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita told Fox News Digital, "Attorney General Rokita stands firmly against unlawful DEI practices and supports President Trump’s actions to end them in corporate America."

Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown's office referred Fox News Digital to his letter, co-signed by 13 Democratic attorneys general earlier this month, urging Walmart to keep its commitment to DEI. The letter was also signed by the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Iowa AG Bird did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment by publication time.

Fox News' Jamie Joseph and Taylor Penley contributed to this article.

There are two pieces of very good news that have come out of the infighting over H-1B visas for foreign skilled workers in Trump World this week. The first happy accident is that tensions are already easing, much to the chagrin of liberals who hoped they were witnessing a permanent schism.

The second, even better development, is that both sides of the admittedly zesty debate have listened, compromised, and arrived at a better and clearer set of positions for the Republican Party moving forward.

In the red corner, we had the twin heads of the Department of Government Efficiency, Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk who appeared at first to call for expansion of the H-1B visa program that allows employers to use foreign labor when they cannot find qualified Americans.

In the other red corner, we had Steve Bannon and a host of prominent America Firsters all but calling for an end of the skilled foreign worker program, a policy that would no doubt cause considerable chaos and disruption.

On Saturday, President-elect Trump weighed in, sort of, telling the New York Post that he likes the visa program and uses it himself, but not endorsing any expansion. And this is of course the same Trump who fired board members of the Tennessee Valley Authority for using foreign workers over Americans.

By Sunday morning, as parents quietly sipped coffee and spied the news on their phones, the kids getting a little more sleep before church, things had calmed down considerably in this impromptu intramural immigration debate.

For his part, Ramaswamy, after an ill-advised X post this week criticizing American families for having more sleepovers and movie nights than their South Asian counterparts, has backed off of his cultural high hill and retrained his sights on the real issue at hand.

Meanwhile, Musk arguably moved even further to the center of the issue, posting late Saturday night that the excesses of the H-1B visa program are "easily fixed by raising the minimum salary significantly and adding a yearly cost for maintaining the H-1B, making it materially more expensive to hire from overseas than domestically."

Or as Musk ally and head of Trump’s office of Artificial Intelligence David Sacks put it, ‘Elon has said that H1B should be overhauled, that it should focus on exceptional talent in high-value areas, and that the scams and low-pay jobs should end. This is not to say there aren’t still differences but less than it first appeared. Time to move forward as one team.’

This is music to the ears of the America First crowd and great news for the young American architect or graphic designer who just wants a level playing field, one where they don’t lose again and again to cheap foreign competition.

Meanwhile, the Bannonistas, who have been by Trump’s side from the very beginning a decade ago, are easing their attacks on newcomers Ramaswamy and Musk, and appreciating that they are all on the same team.

The only real losers in the wake of this kerfuffle are the Democrats and liberal talking heads who hoped that they were watching MAGA tear itself apart. As Republicans work out their differences, instead of munching on popcorn, the left is eating crow.

There are some lessons to take from the recent unpleasantness. At one point, some in the pro H-1B crowd, and some on the left, accused those in opposition of anti-South Asian racism, a terrible lie and an even worse message. Thankfully, this did not last long.

And it is important that the generally leftist tactic of pointing and yelling racism did not work because these are exactly the fights that make our foreign foes with their trolling social media bot farms drool, and they were working overtime to divide Americans this week.

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Thankfully, it failed.

In the end, as tempers cooled and discourse bent back in the direction of congeniality and good faith. What we are left with is a fructive and fulsome debate over a nuanced issue.

Of course, the United States wants to attract the best and the brightest to help chart out a technological course forward, but we also don’t want to tell a truck driver that the kid he sends to college is going to get passed over for cheaper foreign counterparts.

The opportunity to balance these concerns over attracting the best from elsewhere, while not burdening our own citizens' ability to achieve is upon us. Compromise really is possible. It might not always look like a church social, it might get a little rough around the edges, but as a wise man once said, ‘politics ain’t beanbag.’

Trump takes office in about three weeks, and it bodes well for his upcoming four years as president that those who serve and support can not only argue with pointed vigor, but also come together with an honest give and take when called for. 

The battle of the H-1B turned out not to be a crisis in MAGAland, but rather a roadmap for compromise and competent governance.

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