Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent begins a two-day tour of Capitol Hill this morning. First stop: the House Financial Services Committee. The Senate Banking Committee gets the second bite on Thursday.
This won’t be Bessent’s first time in front of the banking committees, but a lot has happened in the U.S. economy since last spring. Here’s what lawmakers have in store for the Treasury secretary:
Big picture. Bessent remains one of the Trump administration’s foremost voices on policy and economics — a market soother one day and a partisan pugilist the next.
That status gives Bessent’s hearings this week even more weight, even for a Cabinet official. Lawmakers of both parties will try to use that to their advantage.
Some Republicans are focused on messaging. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) said he hopes Bessent would tout the Trump administration’s wins over the past year.
“He should take a victory lap,” Moreno said of Bessent on Tuesday. “He should talk about the great things that we’ve done.”
Lawmakers have plenty of policy questions for Bessent. The Senate particularly remains concerned about the fate of the Federal Reserve’s independence. Top Senate Banking Committee Democrat Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) said her line of questioning would focus in part on Kevin Warsh, who was nominated by the Trump administration this week to be the next Fed chair.
Warren said she wants to ask Bessent “where he agrees and disagrees with the Fed nominee on inflation, interest rates and the role of deregulation.”
One notable Republican said he may not bother pressing Bessent on the Fed. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) says he won’t budge on blocking the nomination of Warsh until the Trump Department of Justice drops its criminal probe into Fed Chair Jay Powell.
“Nobody needs to talk with me, because I’m not going to change my mind,” Tillis told reporters on Tuesday. “If [Bessent] has an update on the [Powell] investigation, that’d be helpful, but I doubt he would.”
Little picture. You’re also going to hear a lot of lawmakers press Bessent on their personal policy priorities. There’s a lot of potential for news here.
— Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) said he’ll ask Bessent about Treasury’s efforts to implement new outbound investment restrictions which were signed into law in late 2025. Barr said he’ll “discuss congressional intent.”
— Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) wants to ask Bessent about deposit insurance reform. House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) hasn’t been enthusiastic about this push, but Bessent has touted it as a priority. “Fun will be had,” Lucas said.
— Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) will press Bessent about the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which has repeatedly faced the ire of the White House since 2025. Warner and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) both said they’ll seek clarity on the Trump administration’s preferences on crypto market structure legislation.
