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Scott Bessent
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ProfilePerson

Scott Bessent

Official · Treasury

Type
Person
Role
Official · Treasury
Updated

The profile

Treasury Secretary since Jan. 28, 2025; not part of the 2020–2021 relief programs, he presides over Treasury in the era of pandemic-relief fraud recovery and clawbacks.

  • Pandemic-program role: None directly. He took office in 2025, years after the 2020–2021 relief programs were administered.
  • Institution · office: Treasury · Office of the Secretary · Type: political (PAS)
  • Tenure (relief-relevant): Sworn in Jan 28, 2025; incumbent as of September 2026.

The job (role mechanics)

  • Level / appointment: PAS (Presidential appointment, Senate-confirmed). Executive Schedule Level I (EX-I).
  • Reports to: The President of the United States.
  • Core responsibility: Head of the Department of the Treasury: federal fiscal and economic policy, tax administration (IRS), debt management, sanctions and financial intelligence (OFAC/FinCEN), and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (which disburses federal payments).
  • Pay: Executive Schedule Level I. The 2025 statutory EX-I rate is $250,600 (OPM Salary Table 2025-EX). The American Relief Act, 2025 (sec. 164) and the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (sec. 1605) extended the section 747 pay freeze, which covers every Executive Schedule position, through September 30, 2025. Through that date his payable rate was the rate payable on December 31, 2024, not the $250,600 statutory figure.
  • Expectations / mandate: Principal economic adviser to the President; statutory custodian of Treasury's functions.
  • Tenure norm: Political appointee; serves at the pleasure of the President. Incumbent since Jan 28, 2025.

Who they are

Scott Bessent is the 79th Secretary of the Treasury (Janet Yellen was the 78th; Treasury's release sb0001 titles him the "79th Secretary"). Before government he was a global-macro hedge-fund investor at Soros Fund Management and, later, his own firm Key Square Group.

Education

  • Yale University (per the Wikipedia entry, secondary: B.A., 1984); he later taught economic history at Yale as an adjunct professor (Treasury bio).

Career before

  • Soros Fund Management: managing partner of the London office from 1991 to 2000 and later Chief Investment Officer (Treasury bio).
  • Key Square Group / Key Square Capital Management: founder, CEO and CIO of the global-macro hedge fund, launched 2015.

Role in the pandemic relief programs

  • Direct role: none. Bessent had no part in designing, administering, or disbursing PPP, EIDL, the Economic Impact Payments, or any 2020–2021 relief program; he was a private investor at the time and entered office in 2025.
  • Downstream relevance: As Secretary in 2025–2026 he leads Treasury during the period of pandemic-relief fraud recovery, clawbacks, and oversight, and oversees the Bureau of the Fiscal Service that originally disbursed the payments.

Documents written or signed

  • No pandemic-relief rules or guidance.

Career after / where they are now

  • Incumbent 79th Secretary of the Treasury as of September 2026 (Treasury, "Statement from Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent Before the United States House Committee on Financial Services," September 15, 2026, https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0630).

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents and archived captures

Sources (first-party)

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