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Senate’s Confirmation of Scott Bessent Signals Corporate Capture of Treasury Department

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate today voted to confirm Scott Bessent as the next Secretary of Treasury. In response, Anne Perrault, senior finance policy counsel with Public Citizen, issued the following statement: 

“Scott Bessent is an oligarch who spent a career serving rich clients. He will need to make a hard pivot toward understanding that sound policy must serve average Americans, including by saving banks and achieving a fair tax system.

Under Bessent, the Treasury Department appears poised to attend only to the largest lenders and investors. This is in contrast to the past four years, where the Department took necessary, though insufficient, steps to address climate change as a ‘unique, existential risk for the planet that will affect every aspect of our lives and the lives of our children’ and, in turn, pose a ‘tremendous risk to our country’s financial stability.’ By ignoring climate change as a financial risk, Trump’s Treasury Department under Bessent, is on a path that could devastate hard-working families.”

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