Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon for a meet-and-greet session with House Republicans, according to Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., the chair of the House GOP conference, as President Donald Trump seeks to implement new tariffs and quickly pass his policy agenda.
Bessent’s timely visit, first reported by NBC News, is the latest in a string of meetings between House Republicans and key Trump administration officials called the “Meet the Cabinet” series, which McClain recently started orchestrating on Capitol Hill. In her leadership position, McClain is in charge of the House GOP’s messaging arm, as well as member services.
The goal of the meetings, McClain said, is to provide rank-and-file members with a direct line of communication with the new administration, which she argued will help educate House Republicans and make their messaging more effective. Some congressional Republicans have privately complained that they are often out of the loop on the White House’s moves, from the scope of upcoming tariffs to the Elon Musk-led cost-cutting crusade inside the federal government.
“We want to hear it from the horse’s mouth. ... We have to arm people with the facts,” McClain, who just stepped into the No. 4 leadership position this year, said in an interview. “Our members are able to ask tough questions to the person directly involved. It just brings everyone closer. It helps unify the conference.”
Since McClain started the series in March, she has hosted several other members of the Trump administration on Capitol Hill. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with House Republicans in early March to kick off the series. And Vice President JD Vance joined a House Republican conference meeting last month ahead of a critical vote on government funding, which Vance strongly advocated for. Nearly every House Republican ended up voting for the bill, a big feat for GOP leadership and the White House.
McClain also helped organize a meeting in March between Musk and the entire Republican conference. While Musk is not part of Trump’s Cabinet, he has been a key player in the White House, and McClain said many rank-and-file Republicans had been clamoring to meet with him.
Lawmakers are likely to have plenty of questions Tuesday for Bessent, who will be dropping in on Capitol Hill at a critical moment. Trump is preparing to announce a new wave of tariffs Wednesday, which has created uncertainty for the markets and caused heartburn for some lawmakers, particularly in agriculture-heavy states.
Meanwhile, congressional Republicans and the White House are racing to pass a massive tax, energy and border security package to enact Trump's agenda. Bessent is also huddling separately with top GOP leaders and key committee chairs Tuesday.
“I think you’re going to get some really tough questions,” McClain said of Tuesday’s meeting with Bessent. “People will ask about the impacts of tariffs, interest rates, reconciliation. You’re going to get everything. There’s going to be a lot of questions, and there will probably be a lot of opinions.”
The House and the Senate are aiming to pass a compromise budget blueprint, which is needed to unlock the so-called reconciliation process that would allow Republicans to cut out Democrats. The House and the Senate each passed their own versions, though the Senate has come around to passing a budget resolution that more closely mirrors the House version.
But the Senate is still looking to make some changes, which the House would then need to swallow. The Senate could vote on its new blueprint as soon as this week.
After Bessent, next on McClain’s wish list for the meet-and-greet series is Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, since immigration is another hot topic for the administration. No date is set, but a meeting is in the works, McClain said.
“When I call a Cabinet member and ask them to do it, I have not had anyone tell me no,” McClain said. “And I know they’re busy. I know they’re trying to hit the ground running, but that just makes us all on the same sheet of music, singing from the same hymnal.”