CNN
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Thursday’s trio of confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees put the focus squarely on Trump’s domestic and economic agenda, which will dominate the debates on Capitol Hill this year.
None of the nominees appearing Thursday before the Senate – Scott Bessent at Treasury, Doug Burgum at Interior and Lee Zeldin at the Environmental Protection Agency – appear to be in any danger of not winning Senate confirmation. But their hearings offered a preview of the coming battles the Trump administration will fight this year to implement the president-elect’s agenda on taxes, spending, tariffs and the environment.
Bessent’s hearing, in particular, highlighted the looming deadlines in Congress this year on taxes and spending, including extending the Trump 2017 tax cuts. Republicans will have to navigate narrow majorities in the House and Senate to pass legislation.
Addressing the expiring tax cuts is “the single most important economic issue of the day,” Bessent told the Senate Finance Committee.
Burgum, the former North Dakota governor, praised Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda at his hearing, while Zeldin testified that he believes “climate change is real” but would not did not say whether he believes the EPA has an obligation to regulate planet-warming pollution.
Here are takeaways from Thursday’s confirmation hearings:
Bessent, a hedge fund manager tapped to lead the Treasury Department, pitched Trump’s economic agenda as a way to “unleash a new economic golden age” that would “lift up all Americans.”
That agenda includes making the 2017 tax cuts permanent, he said.
“As always with financial instability, that falls on the middle- and working-class people,” Bessent said of the tax cuts expiring. “We will see a gigantic middle class tax increase. We will see the child tax credit halved. We will see the deductions halved.”
Extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, one of 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.
Bessent sounded the alarm at Thursday’s hearing about the federal deficit, and lawmakers are gearing up to raise the federal debt ceiling in the coming months.
But the Treasury nominee argued that the issue with the federal budget is spending, and not revenues.
“We do not have a revenue problem in the United States. We have a spending problem,” Bessent said.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, questioned Bessent over who would bear the brunt of the cost of Trump’s proposed tariffs on foreign goods imported into the US.
“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 that he disagreed. “The history of tariffs and tariff theory, optimal tariff theory, does not support what you’re saying,” he said. “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.”
Bessent also argued that 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.
In response to questions on the Federal Reserve, Bessent said that the Fed would maintain its independence under Trump’s second term as president.
“I think on monetary policy decisions, the (Fed) should be independent,” Bessent said during an exchange with Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada.
That would mean that 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.
Burgum vows to follow the law and Constitution
Burgum told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday that he will “follow the law and follow the Constitution” if confirmed, when asked whether he would stand up to demands made by Trump.
It’s a similar question that has been posed by Democrats to Trump’s national security and law enforcement nominees during confirmation hearings this week.
“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?” asked Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.
“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,” Burgum testified. “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.”
Burgum, who ran for president against Trump in the 2024 Republican primary, praised Trump’s vision for “energy dominance” in his testimony Thursday, arguing that the government should be “prioritizing innovation over regulation.”
“The American people have clearly placed their confidence in President Trump to achieve energy dominance,” Burgum told the committee, saying that Trump’s energy agenda will “make life more affordable for every family in America by driving down inflation.”
Zeldin, a former New York congressman who ran for governor in 2022, said at his confirmation hearing Thursday that he sees climate change as a threat, while he defended the incoming president’s position on the matter.
“I believe that climate change is real,” Zeldin said, when pressed by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Sanders — who pointed out that 2024 was the planet’s hottest year in recorded history and cited the fires raging in California — asked Zeldin whether he agrees with Trump that climate change “is a hoax.”
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,” Zeldin said. “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.”
Later, in an exchange with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, Zeldin did not say whether he thinks the agency he’s set to lead has an obligation to regulate plant-warming pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels.
A 2007 Supreme Court ruling found that greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil, gas or coal qualify as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act — and that 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 whether 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 the 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.”
Republican and Democratic senators alike asked 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 rule-making, 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 Trump’s campaign promises. However, Zeldin hinted his agency would be conducting more oversight into EPA grant programs funded as part of 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.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Matt Egan, Sarah Ferris, Clare Foran, Katie Lobosco, Tami Luhby, Bryan Mena, Ella Nilsen and Shania Shelton contributed to this report.
