Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Howard Lutnick and Jeffrey Kessler at the Commerce Department, which then licensed Nvidia's AI chips for sale to China in exchange for 15% of their revenues from chip sales to China, and he voted to confirm Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem, whose agencies cut FBI counterintelligence, the intelligence office that tracked foreign influence, the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force and a third of the cybersecurity agency. In June 2026 he voted against barring one person from running the intelligence community while heading another agency.
In April 2025 Ricketts cast a deciding vote against ending the emergency behind the global tariffs, including those on China. The Nebraska Farm Bureau, citing North Dakota State University, reported that Nebraska was estimated to have lost $710 million in farm sales to China from March 2025 to February 2026.
Pete Ricketts's Confirmation Votes and Votes on China and National Security
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Commerce Officials Who Licensed AI Chip Sales to China. Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary on February 18, 2025, and Jeffrey Kessler as under secretary for industry and security, who runs export controls, on March 13, 2025. Commerce started issuing H20 licenses on Aug. 8, two days after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met the President, with Nvidia and AMD agreeing to pay 15% of their revenues from chip sales to China to the U.S. government. In December 2025 the administration cleared Nvidia's H200 for China with 25 percent of the revenue going to the government, and in January 2026 Commerce published a new regulation permitting the sale of advanced AI chips to China. Council on Foreign Relations analysts wrote that China's military is actively seeking Nvidia chips.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Kash Patel, Who Moved Counterintelligence Agents to Immigration Work. On February 20, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director, by 51 to 49. Former agents said 23 percent of the roughly 13,000 total FBI agents have been reassigned to work on immigration enforcement and that agents with expertise on foreign adversaries such as China, Iran, and Russia are now handling immigration cases, The New Republic reported. In February 2026 Patel fired a dozen agents and staff members from a counterintelligence unit, CNN reported.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Tulsi Gabbard, Who Cut the Intelligence Office That Tracked Foreign Influence. On February 12, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence; she was confirmed 52 to 48. In August 2025 Gabbard announced her office will cut nearly half its workforce, dissolving the Foreign Malign Influence Center, National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center and the cyber threat center, and began revoking the security clearances of 37 current and former U.S. officials.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Pam Bondi, Who Disbanded the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force. On February 4, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general. The next day Bondi issued a memo under which the order disbands the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force, the unit that worked against secret influence campaigns by China, Russia and other adversaries aimed at Americans.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Kristi Noem, Whose Department Cut a Third of the Cybersecurity Agency. On January 25, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security, whose department includes the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. By June 2026 the agency has lost roughly one-third of its workforce since early 2025, and recent layoffs included staff working to combat intrusion campaigns by Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon, the Chinese state hacking groups, NOTUS reported.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm the FCC Commissioner Who Helped Reverse Phone-Network Security Rules After the Salt Typhoon Hack. On June 18, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Olivia Trusty as a member of the Federal Communications Commission, 53 to 45. In November 2025 Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty approved the reversal of a January 2025 ruling requiring carriers to secure their networks, a ruling introduced in the aftermath of the China-linked Salt Typhoon intrusions, The Register reported.
- Ricketts Voted Against Barring a Dual-Role Intelligence Chief During the Iran War. On June 4, 2026, Ricketts voted no on Senator Mark Warner's amendment "to prohibit an individual from acting as Director of National Intelligence if such individual is simultaneously serving as the head of any other Federal department or agency." It failed 49 to 49 under a 60-vote threshold. Two days earlier the President named Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte acting director of national intelligence, and Trump said Pulte will keep his other positions even as he fills in for Gabbard; the Associated Press described Pulte as a real estate scion with no clear national security credentials.
- Ricketts Cast a Deciding Vote Against Ending the Global Tariff Emergency China Retaliated Against. On April 30, 2025, Ricketts voted no on S.J.Res. 49, which would have ended the national emergency the President declared to impose global tariffs, including on China. It was defeated 49 to 49, so a yes vote from Ricketts would have passed it. China answered with tariffs that hit American farm goods and in retaliation for President Trump's new tariffs on Chinese goods limited rare-earth exports, after which U.S. manufacturers soon began shutting down production, the Center for Strategic and International Studies found. The Supreme Court ruled on February 20, 2026 that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.
What China's Retaliation Against the Tariffs Pete Ricketts Kept Cost Nebraska Farmers
- Farm sales to China. North Dakota State University economists estimated that U.S. farm shipments to China from March 2025 to February 2026 were almost $15 billion less than they would have been in the absence of the tariffs, and that Nebraska was estimated to have lost $710 million of those sales, the Nebraska Farm Bureau reported. Soybeans made up about half of the national loss, and beef was among the next largest.
Frequently Asked Questions About Pete Ricketts on China and national security
What is Pete Ricketts's record on China and national security under Trump?
Pete Ricketts voted to confirm the Commerce officials who licensed AI chip sales to China for a share of the revenue, and the FBI, intelligence, Justice and Homeland Security leaders who cut counterintelligence, foreign-influence and cybersecurity staff. He voted against barring a dual-role intelligence chief and cast a deciding vote against ending the global tariff emergency, after which Nebraska lost an estimated $710 million in farm sales to China.
Did Pete Ricketts vote to confirm the officials who approved Nvidia chip sales to China?
Yes. Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and export-control chief Jeffrey Kessler. Their department later approved Nvidia's H200 for China, a chip analysts say is more than six times more powerful than the best U.S. AI chip available in China today.
How did China's response to the tariffs hurt Nebraska farmers?
Pete Ricketts voted on April 30, 2025 against ending the emergency behind the global tariffs, a 49 to 49 vote that would have passed with his yes. North Dakota State University economists estimated that Nebraska farmers lost $710 million in sales to China from March 2025 to February 2026, a figure that does not count sales that may have shifted to other buyers.
Last updated: 2026-10-25