The Senate on Monday voted to confirm Scott Bessent to serve as treasury secretary following his nomination to the role by President Donald Trump.
Bessent was confirmed on a 68-29 vote by the full Senate. Over a dozen Democrats voted in favor of Bessent‘s confirmation, including Sens. Lida Blunt Rochester of Delaware, Cory Booker of New York, Chris Coons of Delaware, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Mark Kelly of Arizona, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Gary Peters of Michigan, Elisa Slotkin of Michigan, Cynthia Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Mark Warner of Virginia.
Bessent, 62, is the founder and CEO of global macro investment firm Key Square Group, which he has said he would wind down if confirmed as treasury secretary. The firm focused on macro investing, which is a strategy that leverages geopolitical and macroeconomic information to guide its approach to investing in various markets.
He served as a key economic policy advisor and fundraiser for the Trump campaign. Bessent has been an advocate for economic policies such as lower taxes, spending restraint and deregulation that have long made up the core of the Republican Party’s platform, and has also been supportive of Trump’s use of tariffs in trade negotiations.
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During his confirmation hearings, Bessent said that extending the Trump tax cuts is the “single most important economic issue of the day,” warning a failure to do so would result in a “gigantic” tax increase on middle class Americans due to the expiration of lower tax brackets and a larger standard deduction claimed by most taxpayers.
“If we do not renew an extension, then we will be facing an economic calamity,” Bessent said. “And, as always, with financial instability, that falls on the middle and working class.”
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Bessent said in his opening remarks 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.”
“We must secure supply chains that are vulnerable to strategic competitors, and we must carefully deploy sanctions as part of a whole-of-government approach to address our national security requirements,” Bessent added. “And critically — critically — we must ensure that the U.S. dollar remains the world’s reserve currency.”
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The Senate Finance Committee advanced Bessent’s nomination to the full Senate with a bipartisan vote of 16 to 11 on Jan. 21, the day after Trump’s inauguration. Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., were the Democratic senators who joined all of their Republican colleagues in voting to advance his nomination.
During the presidential campaign, Bessent touted what he called the “3-3-3” plan that was modeled off the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “three arrows” idea.
Bessent argued for setting a goal of achieving 3% real economic growth, cutting the budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2028, and increasing U.S. energy production to the equivalent of an additional 3 million barrels of oil per day.
TREASURY SECRETARY NOMINEE SCOTT BESSENT’S ‘3-3-3’ PLAN: WHAT TO KNOW
The role of treasury secretary carries a great deal of significance for conducting the president’s economic agenda.
Treasury secretaries often lead negotiations with Congress over tax and spending matters. They also play a key role in dealing with foreign governments and financial institutions, as well as handling the operations of the Treasury Department and sub-agencies like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
During Trump’s first term as president, Steven Mnuchin served as treasury secretary for the duration of the four-year term after he was confirmed by the Senate on a 53-47 vote a few weeks after Inauguration Day.
Mnuchin served as a key negotiator with Congress on the debt limit, tax and spending policies, as well as COVID relief packages that were enacted in 2020 after the pandemic began.
Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy contributed to this report.
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