US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is delivering testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee on President Donald Trump’s tax and trade agenda and the President’s budget request for FY26. The hearing is ongoing. Questions from lawmakers are likely to be dominated by the trade framework struck with China in London. LIVESTREAM
- Per prepared remarks, Bessent said in his opening address: “…Treasury has just completed its most successful tax filing season in years—and we did so while improving efficiencies and cutting costs at the IRS.”
- Bessent noted that, “April receipts this year were up 9.5% over the previous year. And receipts in May were up 14.7% over the previous year... against the backdrop of one of the most consequential tax proposals ever to come before Congress,” referring to the One Big Beautiful Bill.
- Bessent said OBBB, "will make the 2017 tax cuts permanent," adding: “The legislation will provide 100% expensing for new factories, as well as existing factories that expand operations and support Made-in-America. And it will streamline burdensome permitting processes...”
- On trade, Bessent touted “the historic US-UK trade deal,” which he claimed “is a preview of what’s to come. Dozens of countries have engaged the administration thus far with offers to improve their trade relations with the United States. This includes China.”
- On China, Bessent said: “If China will course-correct by upholding its end of the initial trade agreement we outlined in Geneva last month, then a big, beautiful rebalancing of the world’s two largest economies is possible.”