United States Senator Elizabeth Warren has called on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to convene the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to address potential economic problems resulting from President Donald Trump's global tariffs. Senator Warren expressed her concerns as a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. She emphasized the need for immediate action from the Treasury Secretary amidst fears of an impending recession.
In a recent statement, Senator Warren criticized Secretary Bessent's actions: “As you’ve been reporting all day long, every light is flashing red in terms of the economy and that we really are in the precipice of sliding into a recession and maybe taking it worldwide." She further commented on Bessent's engagement with media figures, stating, “Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Treasury is going on Tucker Carlson to talk about all of the workers that Trump and DOGE have illegally fired – and spin some tale about how all those people from the Veterans Administration or the NIH or the Social Security Administration can go work in these factories that will magically appear."
Senator Warren reiterated the importance of the FSOC, a body created after the financial crash of 2008 to coordinate government responses to economic crises. She added: “You know, we need a Treasury of the Secretary who is in the real world. And in the real world right now, he should be calling a meeting of FSOC. Remember the Financial Stability Oversight Council which is what we put in place after the crash in 2008. And this is the way the government - when the economy is doing what it's doing right now - the Secretary of the Treasury is supposed to pull everyone together and actually figure out a plan, call the plan, and then execute on the play. But that is not what our Secretary of the Treasury is doing.”
In addition to her call to action for Secretary Bessent, Senator Warren encouraged bipartisan cooperation in Congress to pass a resolution to remove President Trump's tariffs.