Today, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) delivered the following remarks at a hearing with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

As prepared for delivery.

“I want to start off by thanking you, Secretary Bessent, for coming here straight from London after fighting for America’s interests in negotiations with China. I also want to thank you for your close collaboration and ongoing work with Congress to deliver The One, Big, Beautiful Bill to President Trump’s desk as soon as possible. 

“You have noted how the different parts of President Trump’s economic agenda, tax relief, fairer trade, and deregulation, are working together to ignite a new era of American prosperity. Only five months into the Trump Administration, Americans are already seeing real results from this agenda:

• Inflation is coming down. Just look at the price of eggs. They are down 61 percent since President Trump took office.
• Wages are increasing faster than prices, helping families recover from Biden’s 21 percent inflation tax.
• $9 trillion has been pledged by the private sector to be invested in new facilities, factories, and American workers.
• In April, we saw the monthly trade deficit cut in half, with both U.S. exports increasing and imports decreasing.
• More than 70 countries have requested rapid negotiations to improve our trade relationships to be fairer to American workers and businesses.
• And we are creating new jobs in the private sector, rather than more federal taxpayer-funded bureaucrats. 

“Democrats have tried to obstruct this success every step of the way.  Just last month, they voted for the largest tax hike in American history, in order to bring this progress to a screeching halt. Congress must pass The One, Big, Beautiful Bill to save American families from a looming $1,700 tax increase and instead give Americans a $1,300 tax cut. 

“77 million Americans voted to make the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, tax relief for seniors, and no tax on auto loan interest payments. Democrats fought each of these tooth and nail.

“Forty million families will benefit from the increased Child Tax Credit. Millions of American children born each year will now have savings accounts started in their name. Democrats voted against both of those items. Ninety-one percent of taxpayers who use the standard deduction will benefit from a doubled deduction that is made permanent and further increased. Democrats voted against that too.

“Washington Democrats voted against cutting taxes for blue collar families. They described these as tax cuts for millionaires. Well, people making over $1 million will pay an even greater share of the tax burden than today while families making less than $100,000 get a 13 percent tax cut.

“Nearly 30 million small businesses will benefit from a pass-through deduction that is both expanded and made permanent. Two million family farms and small businesses will benefit from a death tax exemption that is permanent, larger, and indexed to inflation. Democrats opposed this help for Main Street businesses and family-owned farms.

“The renewal of pro-growth tax policies will attract more investment, new plants and facilities, save 1.1 million manufacturing jobs and help boost America’s GDP by over 3.5 percent. Democrats couldn’t fulfill these goals and instead shoveled your tax dollars towards mega banks, China, and radical wealthy environmentalists. We are replacing that bad tax policy with good tax policy that broadly benefits workers, families, farmers, and small businesses. In fact, we are cutting spending by $1.6 trillion, the largest mandatory spending cut in U.S history. Democrats brag about cutting spending under President Clinton, but he needed a Republican Congress to get it done.

“Illegal immigrants will no longer be eligible for refundable tax credits and other benefits. Democrats voted to allow this practice to continue.

“Instead, Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill rewards working families. Take-home pay will rise by as much as $13,300 and 7.4 million new jobs will be created or saved, including 1 million small business jobs annually. And they need it after four years of Washington Democrats doing the opposite.

“This bill breaks with Democrats on surrendering American tax revenue to foreign governments. Instead, we put America first. We give President Trump the tools needed to stand up to foreign nations that unfairly tax American businesses. We will defend our tax sovereignty. If these countries choose to withdraw their unfair taxes, this policy will have achieved its goal.

“I am looking forward to my Senate colleagues quickly passing The One, Big, Beautiful Bill so that we can get it to President Trump’s desk by July Fourth.

“This Committee will work closely with the Treasury Department to ensure implementation of this law gives workers, families, farmers, and small businesses the tax relief they are owed and as soon as possible. 

“I also want to acknowledge another component of President Trump’s economic agenda that is central to this committee’s responsibilities: the President’s trade and tariff actions. Even the Biden Administration acknowledged the success of the first-term Trump tariffs by keeping them in place. Democrats had no issues with that.

“But now that President Trump is back in office and once again aggressively leveraging tariffs to create fairer treatment for American manufacturers, farmers, and workers, Democrats dislike tariffs again. 

“I am encouraged by the progress we have made to tear down unfair trade barriers and the ongoing consultation Secretary Bessent and others in the Administration have had with us to ensure better trade deals that open market access for American products and services and hold foreign trading partners accountable 

“Thank you, Secretary Bessent, for your hard work, for advancing the President’s agenda.”