In one of their first major opportunities to publicly push back against members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet, House Democrats didn’t land many big punches.
While the minority party is typically eager to use oversight hearings to create splashy, on-camera moments, House Democrats managed few as the faces of some of Trump’s biggest policy moves — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — defended the president on Capitol Hill Tuesday.
“This is our first substantive hearing dealing with the devastating actions the Trump administration has taken in the first three months of 2025. Actions planned and predicted by Project 2025,” Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer, who long held a top leadership post in the caucus, said at the beginning of Bessent’s hearing.
But as the hearing proceeded, Hoyer complimented Bessent by saying how much he respected his background. He described his hopes for a working relationship like the one he had with Secretary Steve Mnuchin in the last Trump administration.
Though House Democrats took heat from their constituents for appearing too complacent during town hall events during the recent recess, visible anger was in short supply at the hearings.
During the first Trump administration, viral hearing moments were a key way lawmakers grew their platforms and publicized their opposition — like then-Sen. Kamala Harris’ questioning of Supreme Court nominees or then-Rep. Adam Schiff’s spotlight moments leading impeachment hearings. The ongoing debate over what congressional protest should look like in the second Trump administration is a key question — as of Tuesday’s hearings, it wasn’t clear Democrats have landed on a cohesive strategy yet.
In Bessent’s hearing, Democrats suggested they wanted to return to the bipartisan nature of the past, even as some have been pushing their colleagues to treat this political moment as extraordinary and demanding of a more forceful response.
Progressive Rep. Mark Pocan created one of the few moments of tension, interrupting Bessent’s “it’s complicated” answer to a question about who pays tariffs with, “I’m not going to waste my time having you go uh, uh, uh, uh.”
Rep. Glenn Ivey created another, pushing against Bessent on the Department of Government Efficiency’s access to Treasury payment systems.
“I’m not gonna speculate,” Bessent said on whether he would have hired DOGE staffer Marko Elez if he had known about his racist social media posts.
Bessent skirted questions about tariffs by arguing “strategic uncertainty” is part of the negotiating process and called indications of Trump’s policies hurting the economy misleading.
“Before I took this job, I didn’t particularly like the term ‘fake news’. Now that I have, I think it’s probably not strong enough,” Bessent said.
At Noem’s hearing, Democrats did try to push the DHS secretary on some issues that have been flashpoints.
Rep. Veronica Escobar questioned her about specific instances where U.S. citizens were deported and what paperwork was made available to parents with citizen children. Rep. Rosa DeLauro questioned her about the amount of money being spent on advertising and on FEMA reimbursement delays. And Rep. Lauren Underwood questioned her on cuts to cybersecurity.
Spread across the hours-long hearing, their attacks didn’t generate buzz and were interrupted with Republicans who lauded Noem.
Rep. Michael Guest, a Republican, said it was “refreshing” to have someone “before this committee who’s plain spoken, who has a desire to secure the border, desire to enforce the law, to have someone in your position who’s willing to get out from behind a desk, to leave Washington, to go there and be there on the front lines with the men and women who serve.”
Rep. Tom Cole, also a Republican, opened the hearing by letting Noem know what a “pleasure” it was to see her and how “proud we all are of you.”
Republicans asked few accountability questions, and Noem frequently responded that she’d have to follow up with the exact data Democrats requested.
“This is a $200 million ad campaign, taking the money from the CBP and USCIS to promote a political advantage. It’s really kind of the height of arrogance,” DeLauro said in one instance, referring to ads from DHS that tell migrants not to come to the U.S.
“Would you like me to answer?” Noem interrupted to ask.
“I foresee that you’re going to tell me that these were all competitively bid,” DeLauro responded.
“They were,” Noem answered and then elaborated on the ads before DeLauro interrupted her.
“This is a political ad campaign, and really, let’s just not try to sugarcoat it,” DeLauro said, and then changed the topic to Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Elsewhere on the Hill Tuesday, where no major cabinet member was in sight, Democrats did make a different kind of public statement against Trump — rejecting a hearing altogether. Financial Services ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters led Democrats in storming out of a crypto hearing and holding a separate roundtable instead.
“I cannot in good faith agree to such a hearing to discuss crypto market structure while Republicans refuse to stop or even acknowledge Trump’s abuse of power,” she said in a statement. “Members of Congress have a solemn responsibility to protect and defend the American public.”
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Claire Heddles and Casey Murray are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.