House Panel Quizzes Bessent on DOGE, Tariff Talks, China

In an at times contentious hearing, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent testified before members of the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday. But the hearing started off on a lighter note.

In an initial humorous exchange near the beginning of his testimony, the Treasury secretary corrected Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., when she asked him if they had met before. In a seemingly rhetorical question, Waters had asked Bessent if Wednesday had been the first day they had met, to which he answered, “No, ma’am. We actually met one New Year’s Eve in the Bahamas.”

Waters and others at the hearing could be heard laughing at Bessent’s remark. The California congresswoman subsequently asked why she did not remember the occasion, to which the Treasury secretary quipped, “You were much better at the Electric Slide than I was.” Waters’ husband, Sid Williams, had served as U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas from 1994 to 1998 during the Clinton administration. 

Waters subsequently launched into questioning about Department of Government Efficiency employees being given access to Treasury records. 

“They were granted read-only access at Treasury,” Bessent said, adding that the two individuals who had access to the sensitive records were Treasury employees. 

“There is no such thing as a DOGE employee. They were Treasury employees,” Bessent explained. 

Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., demanded to know what countries the U.S. was close to striking deals with regarding U.S. tariffs.

The Treasury secretary replied that making public what countries the U.S. was negotiating with would undermine the negotiations.

“I’m happy to say there are negotiations going on. I’m not going to reveal the details,” Bessent replied. 

Undaunted, Velazquez continued to press for sensitive details related to U.S. trade policy. 

When Velazquez asked whether trade negotiations with China were advanced, Bessent answered: “As I said, on Saturday, we will begin, which I believe is the opposite of ‘advanced.’”

When Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., asked Bessent about China’s debt-trap diplomacy, the Treasury secretary pointed out that the great power nation should no longer be treated as a developing country by international financial institutions. 

“It is time for China to graduate from ‘developing country’ status. It is the second-largest economy in the world,” Bessent said. 

The Treasury secretary noted that since he assumed office, “the Treasury has repeatedly sanctioned so-called Chinese teapot refiners, who are very large buyers of Iranian oil.” 

Bessent offered his own assessment of how the Biden administration had handled the war in Ukraine, arguing that it had been less than robust with it sanctions against the Russian Federation due to fears that the financial punishments would raise energy prices during an election year. 

“On one hand, they were giving aid to [the] government of Ukraine. On the other hand, their sanctions against the Russian Federation were very, very weak,” Bessent explained. 

“The sanctions were just against some of the lower-level oil companies. There was a price cap that has never worked,” the Treasury secretary continued. 

Bessent noted that he had read Wednesday morning that Russian oil and gas revenues were down 12% last month, which he said would “put a dent in the Russian war machine.”

The Treasury secretary will be heading to Switzerland later this week to begin rescheduled trade negotiations with Chinese officials.

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