Trade Negotiations and Debt Limit: Takeaways From Bessent’s Testimony to Congress

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared before the House Appropriations Committee on May 6, talking to lawmakers about a wide range of issues, from tariffs to the debt ceiling. Bessent touted President Donald Trump’s economic agenda of deregulation, tax cuts, and trade changes. “These are not standalone policies. They are interlocking parts of an engine designed to drive economic growth and domestic manufacturing,” Bessent said in his opening remarks before the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. “Already, this agenda is bearing fruit,” Bessent said in his opening remarks. Here are key takeaways from the roughly 90-minute hearing. Many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle centered the conversation on the Trump administration’s fundamental changes to trade policy....