US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is back on Capitol Hill to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee on the department’s priorities, one day after he refused to say whether President Donald Trump and his family would still get immunity from IRS audits after the administration abandoned plans for a $1.776 billion compensation fund that would have benefited the president’s allies.US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the department’s priorities. (AFP)Bessent said future waivers allowing countries to purchase oil from Russia could be granted on a country-by-country basis rather than across the board. “My strong inclination is that if there are further waivers, that they will be country-specific and not generalised,” Bessent said Thursday in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee. “The Russian Federation has seen very little incremental revenue because of the waivers. Their oil was always going to China, and now the oil can go to our allies.”Bessent’s comments came during an exchange with Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania, who asked the Treasury chief to explain the rationale behind his department issuing successive waivers to exempt Russian seaborne oil from US sanctions amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.Fitzpatrick said many on Capitol Hill have been working to make it “unmistakably clear that Russia’s illegal campaign of aggression will not be normalized nor rewarded.” He referenced legislation he introduced with others last year to impose 500% tariffs on Russian imports into the United States, as well as on any nation who helps Russia continue the war through economic support.“You have to step back and think, are you willing to put a 500% tariff on China?” Bessent said. “Because all I’ve heard — especially from the other side, but many on our side — is how tariffs are inflationary. I don’t believe they are. But a 500% tariff is an embargo.”The Treasury secretary defended his support for Ukraine, citing a visit he made to Kyiv in 2025. He also criticized the Biden administration for not being tougher on Russia and said vulnerable nations had requested an extension of the initial waiver at International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings earlier this year.Bessent sounded a “little defensive” during the exchange, Fitzpatrick said in a brief interview afterward, adding that he would follow up with the Treasury secretary on plans for additional waivers.“It’s pretty much universally accepted that the only deterrent to Putin is strangling economic sanctions that put economic pressure on the domestic agenda, domestic population,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s a fair question to ask about the waiver given the situation.”