Scott Bessent told Congress this week that the US is nearly out of time, the money situation is tight, and crypto regulation can’t be delayed anymore.
On Tuesday, he testified before the House Appropriations subcommittee, where he broke down the Trump administration’s cost-cutting campaign and warned lawmakers about the pressure building under the debt ceiling.
He said the Treasury Department had already cut $2 billion from the IRS information technology budget without disrupting any services. The goal now is to cut even more by moving the IRS off paper and into automation.
“Last year, the IRS spent approximately $450 million on paper processing with nearly 6,500 full-time staff dedicated to the task,” Scott said. “Through policy changes and automation, Treasury aims to reduce this expense to under $20 million by the end of President Trump’s second term.”
That’s not all. Scott told lawmakers that more savings are coming from canceling old contracts, dumping unused software subscriptions, and cleaning up bloated tech spending. He defended the administration’s plan to cut nearly $2.5 billion more from the IRS in the proposed fiscal 2026 budget.
That same budget also slashes $163 billion from education, housing, and medical research. He pinned the waste on spending that ballooned under Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which pushed $80 billion into the IRS.
Since then, Republican budget bills have chopped that funding nearly in half. “I am confident that we will make substantial progress in the IT and right-size the payments system, the collection system,” he said. “As I’ve repeatedly said, my priorities are collections, privacy and customer service.”
When asked whether these cuts could hurt enforcement and collections, Scott pushed back. He said it takes years to train new agents and claimed the real gains would come from smarter systems and artificial intelligence.
“So I believe, through smarter IT, through this AI boom, that we can use that to enhance collections,” said Scott. “And I would expect that collections would continue to be very robust, as they were this year.”
Scott Bessent demands leadership on crypto as lawmakers fight over Trump’s involvement
On Wednesday, Scott also testified before the House Financial Services Committee, where crypto regulation dominated the conversation. He was asked directly why the US should lead on crypto policy. His answer was:
“We believe that the United States should be the premier destination for digital assets. And as members of this committee and the Senate are attempting to do — create good market structure around that — so that US best practices are used around the world.”
Scott was appointed by President Donald Trump in January and confirmed by the Senate. He’s also a member of the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, established under Trump’s January 23 executive order. He’s been consistent on crypto, saying the industry is “here to stay.”
But Congress can’t seem to agree on what to do next. On Monday, House Republicans introduced a discussion draft proposing a new setup for the CFTC and SEC, with rules around disclosures and oversight.
But many Democrats walked out of the hearing. They held a separate roundtable on Tuesday to air their concerns over Trump’s direct involvement in the crypto space. Trump recently launched his own memecoin and backed a stablecoin through World Liberty Financial, raising questions about conflicts of interest. Rep. Angie Craig, one of the few Democrats who stayed for the hearing, said both parties have to figure this out together.
Over in the Senate, another bill focused on stablecoin regulation is scheduled for a vote on Thursday. That plan has also stalled. On Saturday, Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner, Raphael Warnock, and Lisa Blunt Rochester said the bill is full of unresolved issues and warned against rushing it.
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