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Interior secretary nominee Doug Burgum would not give a definitive answer during his confirmation hearing when pressed by a Democratic senator over whether he believes federal disaster aid should come with or without conditions, with Burgum saying instead that “each situation would vary.”
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California brought up the devastating wildfires in his home state and noted that in 2024, Burgum, who was governor of North Dakota at the time, requested “a major disaster declaration to assist in recovery from historic wildfires” in the state. “President Biden as I understand it approved it quickly and without conditions. Is that correct?” Padilla asked. Burgum responded, “yes.”
“So do you believe federal disaster aid should come with or without conditions?” Padilla asked.
“Well, I think each situation would vary,” Burgum said, extending his sympathy over the loss and devastation in California.
Burgum went on to say, “Urban wildfire is something that we as a country, we need to think, and I say each situation is different because what you talked about in North Dakota was largely rural, largely grasslands, very different.”
The line of questioning comes as House Speaker Mike Johnson has said that he personally believes conditions should be placed on California wildfire aid, telling CNN’s Manu Raju that “it appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duties in many respects.”
Republican and Democratic senators alike asked President-elect Donald Trump’s EPA administrator pick Lee Zeldin whether he would seek to overturn Biden’s tailpipe regulations. Zeldin didn’t commit to doing so, saying he wouldn’t pre-judge the outcome.
“I’m not allowed to pre-judge outcomes going into rulemaking, to ensure that there is durability of any decision to be made,” Zeldin told Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska.
Overturning Biden’s electric vehicle regulations is one of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promises.
However, Zeldin hinted his agency would be conducting more oversight into EPA grant programs funded as part of President Joe Biden’s 2022 climate law — something Republican lawmakers have been asking for.
“I want to be in a position to account to all of you as far as the dollars being spent by EPA,” he told senators. “I can only assume that there will be funding that will be from that review, that will be in accordance with the law.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune Thursday touted the swift progress the Republican-led Senate is making to hold confirmation hearings to advance President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for Cabinet posts.
“Yesterday, we had six confirmation hearings, the most confirmation hearings, I might add, in a single day since 2001. And we have more happening today and tomorrow,” he said. “By the time President Trump takes the oath of office on Monday, the Senate will have held hearings for 12 of his nominees and there are plenty more to come.”
He said once the nominees move to the floor, he hopes “Democrats will provide a level of cooperation that will allow us to quickly fill this position so that nominees begin their work for the American people.”
Thune also spoke at length about Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who had a confirmation hearing Wednesday to be secretary of state, and said he is guided by a “moral clarity” that makes him a perfect fit for the post.
Senate Intelligence Vice Chairman Mark Warner said that he has not received the FBI background check for Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, and warned that she seems like “she echoes comments that are not in the best interest of America.”
“This is an incredibly important job. It requires serious people with a full understanding of the global national security implications,” said Warner. “I’ve had huge concerns about her characterization of Edward Snowden, somehow deserves a pardon, or her concern, her comments about brutal dictator Assad, or and just the notion — her concerns about sometimes seeming like she echoes comments that are not in the best interest of America.”
Warner, who has met privately with the former congresswoman, also said of their discussion: “I went with questions, I came out with questions.”
Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent said he does not think the federal minimum wage — which has been $7.25 an hour since 2009 — should be raised.
“I believe that the minimum wage is more of a statewide and regional issue,” Bessent said in his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing on Thursday.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who has long pushed to increase the federal minimum wage, raised the effort with the nominee.
Some 30 states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages that are higher than the federal threshold, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. More than five dozen cities and other municipalities have minimum wages above their state thresholds.
The Federal Reserve would maintain its independence under Donald Trump’s second term as president, said Scott Bessent, the president-elect’s choice for treasury secretary, during his confirmation hearing Thursday.
“I think on monetary policy decisions, the (Fed) should be independent,” Bessent told the Senate Finance Committee during an exchange with Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada.
That means the Fed, which influences borrowing costs across the economy as America’s central bank, would continue to make its decisions without the influence of a sitting US president.
The Fed’s independence is highly regarded by Wall Street, reassuring investors that monetary policy decisions are based on data and not political considerations.
The Wall Street Journal last year reported that Trump’s economic advisers drafted up a plan to blunt the Fed’s independence. Bessent called the report “highly inaccurate” in his hearing.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said he is “open” to supporting Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Treasury Department.
Warner praised Bessent’s comments in his ongoing confirmation hearing that he is willing to increase tariffs against Russia, though he noted they have plenty of policy differences.
“I’m going to give him full consideration. I completely disagree with some of his facts about the characterization of the Trump tax cuts, or — there’s not an industrial nation in the world that meets their government needs with about 18% of revenue of GDP. That’s just factually not true,” said Warner.
“But I’m open. I also will say this: I thought it was a very powerful comment that he said that he’s open to increasing sanctions on Russia to increase the pressure. I hope he’ll make that case strongly to the president-elect. We cannot reward Putin for his bad behavior.”
Meanwhile, GOP Sen. Steve Daines argued that Bessent’s confirmation will be very important for Trump’s economic agenda.
“I think this is one of the most important jobs. You look at right now, the interest on the debt is the single greatest expenditure outside of Social Security. This is a massive problem we face with now $36 trillion of debt,” said Daines.
“It’s gonna take a steady hand, the experience of Scott Besant to manage through — you know, it could be some volatile times as you start looking at the amount of debt that we face as a country and how to manage it.”
Top Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are grappling with concerns about attorney general nominee Pam Bondi’s answers during yesterday’s confirmation hearing — especially on her loyalty to President-elect Donald Trump and her support for his controversial pick for FBI director, Kash Patel.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking member on the committee, did not dispute Bondi’s qualifications, nor did he rule out supporting her, noting that “some of the things about her are truly outstanding and impressive” and saying he wouldn’t hesitate to hire her to represent a client.
“Having said that, her answers to some of the questions appear to have a blind spot when it comes to some fundamental issues,” Durbin told CNN’s Lauren Fox, pointing to her refusal to say that President Joe Biden won the majority of votes in the 2020 election.
“She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t say that Joe Biden got more votes than Donald Trump, and she referred to the transition as a peaceful transition to the Biden presidency. I was here on January 6; that was not a peaceful transition, that was a mob scene,” Durbin said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal also voiced concerns about Bondi’s fealty to Trump.
“I see no way that I can responsibly vote for a nominee for attorney general who lacks the ability to say no to Donald Trump when he asked her to do something that’s illegal or immoral,” Blumenthal told Fox. “It’s not a question of whether, or if, Donald Trump will ask the attorney general to do something illegal or immoral — it’s ‘when.’”
Blumenthal said he also has concerns with her embracing the candidacy of Patel, who he called a “conspiracy theorist.” He warned that the FBI pick has an enemies list — even if Bondi says she does not.
If confirmed as treasury secretary, Scott Bessent committed to keeping the IRS Direct File program open for the 2025 tax filing season, which begins January 27.
“I will commit that, for this tax season, Direct File will be operative,” Bessent said when asked by Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden during his confirmation hearing Thursday.
“If confirmed, I will consult and study the program and understand it better and make sure that it works to serve the IRS’s three goals of collections, customer service and privacy,” Bessent added.
Some background: A pilot version of Direct File was launched by the IRS last year. It allows certain eligible taxpayers to file their federal tax returns directly with the IRS for free. It will be open in 25 states this year, up from 12 when it launched.
Some House Republicans have criticized Direct File as a waste of money and called on President-elect Donald Trump to end the program. It was funded by the Democrat-backed Inflation Reduction Act.
Scott Bessent, nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be his Treasury secretary, told the Senate Finance Committee he believes the incoming president’s proposed economic policies, which encompass stiff tariffs, mass deportations and deregulation, would lower costs for consumers and boost their wages.
“I believe that they will increase real wages and lower inflation closer to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, as (they) did during President Trump’s first administration,” Bessent told senators Thursday.
Most economists have said otherwise. An estimate from economists at Yale Budget Lab said that Trump’s plan to slap a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% duty on Chinese goods, could cause consumer prices to jump by 0.75% in 2025. That would equal a loss of about $1,200 in purchasing power per household, in 2023 dollars, according to the estimate provided to CNN.
Bessent, if confirmed, would play a key role in Trump’s economic team, implementing his proposals as Americans deal with a tough housing market, consumer prices that are more than 22% higher compared to 2019, and for some workers, long stretches of unemployment.
In an exchange with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, President-elect Donald Trump’s EPA administrator pick Lee Zeldin did not say he thinks the agency has an obligation to regulate plant-warming pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels.
A 2007 Supreme Court ruling found that greenhouse gas pollution from burning oil, gas or coal qualifies as air pollutants under that Clean Air Act — and that the EPA can regulate them.
Under President Joe Biden, the EPA has issued several major regulations that would cut planet-warming pollution from vehicle tailpipes, power plants, and oil and gas operations. But Trump has vowed to undo those regulations.
Markey asked if Zeldin accepted the Supreme Court’s ruling that the EPA is “obligated to regulate” greenhouse gases. “Do you accept that as a mandate?” Markey asked, citing the Los Angeles wildfires and strong devastating hurricanes this summer.
“The decision does not require the EPA — it authorizes the EPA” to regulate greenhouse gases, Zeldin replied. “It doesn’t say you are obligated to and that’s it. There are steps EPA would have to take in order for an obligation to be created.”
Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum said that he will “follow the law and follow the Constitution” if confirmed to the post in response to a question from a Democratic senator over whether he would stand up to potential demands from President-elect Donald Trump.
Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii pressed Burgum over the issue during his confirmation hearing.
“As secretary of the Interior, it is your duty to see that the department carries out its mission to protect and manage our nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage. If you are ordered by the president to act in a manner that is counter to the department’s mission or to the Constitution — such as drilling in Bears Ears national monument — will you do as the president asks?” Hirono asked.
Burgum responded:
“Well senator, of course, as part of my sworn duty I’ll follow the law and follow the Constitution, and so you can count on that. I have not heard of anything about President Trump wanting to do anything other than advancing energy production for the benefit of the American people.”
Hirono then said, before moving on to another topic, “Well we all know that the President wants to ‘drill, baby, drill,’ and in your testimony, you say that he has an energy dominance vision. So I would ask you, should you be confirmed, that you will have these kinds of matters that you’ll have to decide. Are you going to drill in a monument? Are you going to protect our natural resources or are you going to ‘drill, baby, drill?”
Lee Zeldin, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, said he sees climate change as a threat and defended the incoming president’s position on the matter.
“I believe that climate change is real,” Zeldin said, when pressed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Sanders pointed out that 2024 was the planet’s hottest year in recorded history and cited the wildfires raging in California.
“Do you agree with President-elect Trump that climate change is a hoax?” Sanders asked.
Trump has for years dishonestly dismissed the existence and impact of climate change.
Zeldin said that he did believe climate change was real, and then argued Trump had criticized certain policies related to climate change, specifically raising concerns about the costs.
“The context that I have heard him speak about it was with a criticism of policies that have been enacted because of climate change. I think that he’s concerned about the economic costs of some policies, where there’s a debate and a difference of opinion between parties,” Zeldin said.
The senator then pressed Zeldin again on whether he believed climate change was “an existential threat” to humans. As Zeldin began his response, he said, “we must, with urgency, be addressing these issues,” but Sanders cut him off.
“Do you have kids?” Sanders asked. Zeldin said he does. Sanders then stressed that the issue of climate change would impact “the future of humanity.”
Zeldin, a former GOP congressman who was once part of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus in the House, then looked to assure Sanders that he did worry as well.
“It is my job to stay up at night, to lose sleep at night, to make sure that we are making our air and our water cleaner,” Zeldin said.
As a congressman, Zeldin received the League of Conservation Voters’ worst score on environmental issues out of the entire New York delegation in 2020. Zeldin also has a 14% lifetime score from LCV, a national environmental advocacy group.
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be Treasury secretary put Moscow on notice for the possibility that the incoming Trump administration could ramp up oil sanctions to force an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“If any officials in the Russian Federation are watching this confirmation hearing, they should know that, if I am confirmed and if President Trump requests as part of his strategy to end the Ukraine war, I will be 100% on board for taking sanctions up,” Scott Bessent said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.
He added that tougher sanctions would be targeted especially on major Russian oil companies “to levels that would bring the Russian Federation to the table.”
More on sanctions: Bessent said he was “perplexed” to see that Biden officials waited until they were on their way “out the door” before recently raising sanctions on Russia’s energy sector.
“I believe the previous administration was worried about raising US energy prices during an election season,” Bessent said.
US oil prices briefly topped $80 a barrel on Wednesday for the first time since August before retreating below $79 on Thursday.
If the 2017 Trump tax cuts are not extended, the US would face “economic calamity,” treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent said in his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing on Thursday.
Addressing the expiring tax cuts is “the single most important economic issue of the day,” he said.
“As always with financial instability, that falls on the middle- and working-class people,” Bessent said. “We will see a gigantic middle class tax increase. We will see the child tax credit halved. We will see the deductions halved.”
Some background: Extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, one of President-elect Donald Trump’s signature achievements in his first term, is a top priority of the incoming administration and congressional Republicans, who control Capitol Hill. The sweeping individual income and estate tax cuts — which included a reduction in individual income tax rates, a doubling of the child tax credit and a near doubling of the standard income deduction — are set to expire at the end of the year. Most of the law’s corporate tax reductions are permanent.
Extending the expiring provisions, in addition to some business tax changes and interest, would increase the deficit by $4.6 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The highest-income households would receive more than 45% of the benefits if the expiring tax cuts are extended, according to an analysis released in July by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.
Scott Bessent on Thursday warned that America’s fiscal mess could limit the federal government’s ability to come to the rescue during the next crisis.
“Treasury, along with the full government and Congress, has used its borrowing capacity to save the union, save the world and to save the American people,” Bessent said, referring to borrowing during the Civil War, the Great Depression and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Trump’s Treasury secretary nominee argued that today the government would be “hard pressed to do the same” given high federal deficits.
The comments come as lawmakers prepare to fight over raising the federal debt ceiling, which limits how much Treasury can borrow to meet its existing obligations.
Bessent made clear he wants to slash government spending, saying this issue “got me out from behind my desk and my quiet life.”
“We do not have a revenue problem in the United States. We have a spending problem,” Bessent said.
When asked who would pay the tariffs President-elect Donald Trump has said he would put across the board, Scott Bessent, Trump’s pick for treasury secretary, disputed the committee’s ranking Democratic member Ron Wyden characterization that those costs would be passed on to workers and small business.
“I believe these tariffs — you can call it whatever you want, in trying, in terms of trying to gussy it up — they’re going to be paid for by our workers and small businesses,” Wyden said.
Bessent said in response that he disagrees, saying, “The history of tariffs and tariff theory, optimal tariff theory, does not support what you’re saying. Traditionally, we see that the current — if we were to say, use a number that has been thrown around in the press of 10% — then traditionally, the currency appreciates by 4%, so the 10% is not passed through.”
He continued, “Then we have various elasticities. Consumer preferences may change. And finally, foreign manufacturers, especially China — especially China — which is trying to export their way out of their current economic delays, they will continue cutting prices to maintain market share.”
Scott Bessent put a spotlight on the US housing market’s persistent affordability challenges in his confirmation hearing to be President-elect Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, a key player in the incoming administration’s economic team.
“We have an affordability crisis, a housing shortage and for the first time in my lifetime, parents feel the American dream is slipping away from their children,” Bessent told the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday.
The current situation: Home prices are hovering near record highs as mortgage rates remain elevated — and are expected to stay stuck above 6% through 2026. A persistent shortage of housing in regions across the country has pushed up prices, keeping the quintessential “American Dream” of homeownership out of reach for first-time buyers and low-income households living in places seeing rapid home-price growth.
Mortgage financing giant Freddie Mac estimates there is a housing shortage of 3.7 million units.
Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent uses a “tricky legal maneuver” to avoid paying Medicare payroll taxes, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said at Bessent’s confirmation hearing Thursday.
“It’s a tax loophole that hurts Medicare but benefits him between hundreds of thousands of dollars each year,” Wyden said, who also criticized Trump and Republicans for focusing on helping the rich. “Now, the Treasury Department has gone to court to argue that taxpayers taking this position are violating tax law … I believe it’s a big conflict of interest if the nominee is confirmed.”
“Either he and his lawyers take the position that treasury policy doesn’t apply to the treasury secretary, or he blesses a loophole that lets Wall Street titans blow off their fair share of Medicare taxes,” Wyden continued. “This is exactly the kind of abusive scheme that leaves Americans feeling disgusted with the tax code.”
Bessent, 62, advised Trump on economic policy on the campaign trail and is the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management. Before that, he was the chief investment officer at Soros Fund Management, a hedge fund started by Democratic megadonor George Soros. He gained prominence at the firm for leading efforts to bet against the British pound and Japanese yen that netted the firm billions of dollars in profits.
Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund, which is funded by payroll taxes, is on shaky financial ground since it collects less in revenue than it pays in benefits.
Interior secretary nominee Doug Burgum vowed in his opening remarks for his confirmation hearing to help carry out President-elect Donald Trump’s vision for “energy dominance,” saying his experience as former governor of North Dakota has prepared him well for the role.
“The American people have clearly placed their confidence in President Trump to achieve energy dominance,” Burgum told senators, saying that Trump’s energy agenda will “make life more affordable for every family in America by driving down inflation.”
“My time as governor has been a valuable preparation for the opportunity and the privilege to potentially serve in the role of secretary of interior, as our state — and my duties specifically as governor there — put me in contact with many of the bureaus inside the department,” Burgum said.
“We live in a time of tremendous, tremendous abundance, and we can access that abundance as Americans by prioritizing innovation over regulation,” he said.
