Page "United States Department of Commerce" Paragraph 4

The Obama administration plan faced criticism for some of its elements.

Some Congress members expressed concern that the Office of the United States Trade Representative would lose focus if it were included in a larger bureaucracy, especially given its status as an " honest broker " between other agencies, which tend to advocate for specific points of view.

The overall plan has also been criticized as an attempt to create an agency similar to Japan's powerful Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which was abolished in 2001 after some of its initiatives failed and it became seen as a hindrance to growth.

The transfer of NOAA into the Department of the Interior has also received commentary, with its climate and terrestrial operations and fisheries and endangered species programs expected to integrate well with agencies already in the Interior Department, such as the United States Geological Survey and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

However, environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council feared that the reorganization could distract the agency from its mission of protecting the nation's oceans and ecosystems.