Treasury Secretary designee Scott Bessent’s nomination advanced past a key Senate committee Tuesday, teeing up his likely confirmation with a full floor vote in the coming days.
The Senate Finance Committee, which has oversight authority over the Treasury, backed him 16-11, with Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) joining Republicans in a break from party lines.
Bessent, 62, is a former partner at Soros Fund Management, which was chaired by conservative George Soros. He also founded Key Square Group, an investment adviser firm.
Democratic critics raged against Bessent’s advancement, but the GOP appeared to have the votes to confirm him.
Bessent has been a proponent of President Trump’s economic agenda.
“Today, I believe that President Trump has a generational opportunity to unleash a new economic golden age that will create more jobs, wealth and prosperity for all Americans,” Bessent told the committee earlier this month.
“We must make permanent the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and implement new pro-growth policies to reduce the tax burden on American manufacturers, service workers and seniors,” the nominee said.
Bessent warned that if Congress fails to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, millions of Americans will face a roughly $4 trillion spike in their taxes.
Republicans in Congress are deliberating internally over a sweeping legislative package to extend and expand those 2017 tax cuts.
Bessent has also defended Trump’s plans and threats involving tariffs, particularly ones against China.
“China is in a severe recession and are attempting to export their way out of that instead of the needed rebalance,” Bessent argued during his hearing with the Senate Finance Committee.
“We cannot allow them to flood our markets and the world.”
After Trump’s victory in November, the 47th president’s allies had splintered between choosing Bessent or Cantor Fitzgerald Chairman Howard Lutnick for Treasury.
Trump ultimately landed on Bessent, who he hailed for being “widely respected as one of the world’s foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists.”
Lutnick was eventually tapped as Trump’s commerce secretary pick.
Democratic critics have harped on Bessent’s business past and concerns about the conservative agenda he intends to implement at Treasury.
For instance, Democratic Senate Finance ranking member Ron Wyden of Oregon dinged Bessent over litigation he is facing involving his method of skirting Medicare taxes on income he amassed from the Key Square Group. Dems have accused Bessent of bilking Uncle Sam roughly $900,000.
“The IRS has gone to court twice to ban this particular scheme that Mr. Bessent is using,” Wyden fumed. “You cannot have a Treasury secretary who doesn’t abide by Treasury policy.”
Republicans have brushed aside those attacks, with Senate Finance Chair with Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) arguing that Bessent “has done nothing wrong except follow traditional tax law.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio became the first Trump cabinet nominee to get sworn into office Tuesday after clearing the Senate the prior night in a unanimous vote.
