United States Secretary of the Treasury

"Secretary of the Treasury" redirects here. For other uses, see Secretary of the Treasury (disambiguation). Not to be confused with Treasurer of the United States.

United States Secretary of the Treasury
Seal of the Department of the Treasury
Flag of the secretary
Incumbent Scott Bessent since January 28, 2025
Department of the Treasury
Style	Mr. Secretary (informal) The Honorable (formal)
Member of	Cabinet National Security Council
Reports to	President of the United States
Seat	Treasury Building, Washington, D.C.
Appointer	The president with advice and consent of the Senate
Term length	No fixed term
Constituting instrument	31 U.S.C. § 301
Precursor	Superintendent of Finance
Formation	September 11, 1789 (1789-09-11)
First holder	Alexander Hamilton
Succession	Fifth
Deputy	Deputy Secretary
Salary	Executive Schedule, Level I
Website	treasury.gov

The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters pertaining to economic and fiscal policy. The secretary is, by custom, a member of the president's cabinet and, by law, a member of the National Security Council, and fifth in the U.S. presidential line of succession.

Under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution, the officeholder is nominated by the president of the United States, and, following a confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance, will take the office if confirmed by the majority of the full United States Senate.

The secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of defense, and the attorney general are generally regarded as the four most important Cabinet officials, due to the size and importance of their respective departments. The current secretary of the treasury has been Scott Bessent since January 28, 2025.

Powers and functions

The secretary is responsible for formulating and recommending domestic and international financial, economic, and tax policy, participating in the formulation of broad fiscal policies that have general significance for the economy, and managing the public debt. The secretary oversees the activities of the department in carrying out its major law enforcement responsibilities; in serving as the financial agent for the United States government; and in manufacturing coins and currency. As the chief financial officer of the government, the secretary serves as chairman pro tempore of the President's Economic Policy Council, chairman of the boards and managing trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds, and as U.S. Governor of the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

— U.S. Department of the Treasury Web site

The secretary along with the treasurer of the United States must sign Federal Reserve notes before they can become legal tender. The secretary also manages the United States Emergency Economic Stabilization fund.

Salary

The secretary of the treasury is a Level I position in the Executive Schedule, thus earning the salary prescribed for that level ($250,600 as of January 2024).

List of secretaries of the treasury

Parties

  Federalist (4)   Democratic-Republican (4)   Democratic (30)   Whig (5)   Republican (35)   Independent (1)

Status

  Denotes an acting secretary of the treasury

No.	Portrait	Name	State of residence	Took office	Left office	President(s)
1		Alexander Hamilton	New York	September 11, 1789	January 31, 1795		George Washington (1789–1797)
2		Oliver Wolcott Jr.	Connecticut	February 3, 1795	December 31, 1800
							John Adams (1797–1801)
3		Samuel Dexter	Massachusetts	January 1, 1801	May 13, 1801
							Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809)
4		Albert Gallatin	Pennsylvania	May 14, 1801	February 8, 1814		James Madison (1809–1817)
5		George W. Campbell	Tennessee	February 9, 1814	October 5, 1814
6		Alexander Dallas	Pennsylvania	October 6, 1814	October 21, 1816
–		William Jones Acting	Pennsylvania	October 21, 1816	October 22, 1816
7		William H. Crawford	Georgia	October 22, 1816	March 6, 1825
							James Monroe (1817–1825)
8		Richard Rush	Pennsylvania	March 7, 1825	March 5, 1829		John Quincy Adams (1825–1829)
9		Samuel D. Ingham	Pennsylvania	March 6, 1829	June 20, 1831		Andrew Jackson (1829–1837)
10		Louis McLane	Delaware	August 8, 1831	May 28, 1833
11		William J. Duane	Pennsylvania	May 29, 1833	September 22, 1833
12		Roger B. Taney	Maryland	September 23, 1833	June 25, 1834
13		Levi Woodbury	New Hampshire	July 1, 1834	March 3, 1841
							Martin Van Buren (1837–1841)
14		Thomas Ewing	Ohio	March 4, 1841	September 11, 1841		William Henry Harrison (1841)
							John Tyler (1841–1845)
15		Walter Forward	Pennsylvania	September 13, 1841	March 1, 1843
16		John Canfield Spencer	New York	March 8, 1843	May 2, 1844
17		George M. Bibb	Kentucky	July 4, 1844	March 7, 1845
18		Robert J. Walker	Mississippi	March 8, 1845	March 5, 1849		James K. Polk (1845–1849)
19		William M. Meredith	Pennsylvania	March 8, 1849	July 22, 1850		Zachary Taylor (1849–1850)
20		Thomas Corwin	Ohio	July 23, 1850	March 6, 1853		Millard Fillmore (1850–1853)
21		James Guthrie	Kentucky	March 7, 1853	March 6, 1857		Franklin Pierce (1853–1857)
22		Howell Cobb	Georgia	March 7, 1857	December 8, 1860		James Buchanan (1857–1861)
23		Philip Francis Thomas	Maryland	December 12, 1860	January 14, 1861
24		John Adams Dix	New York	January 15, 1861	March 6, 1861
25		Salmon P. Chase	Ohio	March 7, 1861	June 30, 1864		Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865)
26		William P. Fessenden	Maine	July 5, 1864	March 3, 1865
27		Hugh McCulloch	Indiana	March 9, 1865	March 3, 1869
							Andrew Johnson (1865–1869)
28		George S. Boutwell	Massachusetts	March 12, 1869	March 16, 1873		Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1877)
29		William Adams Richardson	Massachusetts	March 17, 1873	June 3, 1874
30		Benjamin Bristow	Kentucky	June 4, 1874	June 20, 1876
31		Lot M. Morrill	Maine	July 7, 1876	March 9, 1877
32		John Sherman	Ohio	March 10, 1877	March 3, 1881		Rutherford B. Hayes (1877–1881)
33		William Windom	Minnesota	March 8, 1881	November 13, 1881		James A. Garfield (1881)
							Chester A. Arthur (1881–1885)
34		Charles J. Folger	New York	November 14, 1881	September 4, 1884
35		Walter Q. Gresham	Indiana	September 5, 1884	October 30, 1884
36		Hugh McCulloch	Indiana	October 31, 1884	March 7, 1885
37		Daniel Manning	New York	March 8, 1885	March 31, 1887		Grover Cleveland (1885–1889)
38		Charles S. Fairchild	New York	April 1, 1887	March 6, 1889
39		William Windom	Minnesota	March 7, 1889	January 29, 1891		Benjamin Harrison (1889–1893)
40		Charles Foster	Ohio	February 25, 1891	March 6, 1893
41		John G. Carlisle	Kentucky	March 7, 1893	March 5, 1897		Grover Cleveland (1893–1897)
42		Lyman J. Gage	Illinois	March 6, 1897	January 31, 1902		William McKinley (1897–1901)
							Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909)
43		L. M. Shaw	Iowa	February 1, 1902	March 3, 1907
44		George B. Cortelyou	New York	March 4, 1907	March 7, 1909
45		Franklin MacVeagh	Illinois	March 8, 1909	March 5, 1913		William Howard Taft (1909–1913)
46		William Gibbs McAdoo	New York	March 6, 1913	December 15, 1918		Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921)
47		Carter Glass	Virginia	December 16, 1918	February 1, 1920
48		David F. Houston	Missouri	February 2, 1920	March 3, 1921
49		Andrew Mellon	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1921	February 12, 1932		Warren G. Harding (1921–1923)
							Calvin Coolidge (1923–1929)
							Herbert Hoover (1929–1933)
50		Ogden L. Mills	New York	February 13, 1932	March 4, 1933
51		William H. Woodin	New York	March 5, 1933	December 31, 1933		Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945)
52		Henry Morgenthau Jr.	New York	January 1, 1934	July 22, 1945
53		Fred M. Vinson	Kentucky	July 23, 1945	June 23, 1946		Harry S. Truman (1945–1953)
54		John Wesley Snyder	Missouri	June 25, 1946	January 20, 1953
55		George M. Humphrey	Ohio	January 21, 1953	July 29, 1957		Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961)
56		Robert Anderson	Connecticut	July 29, 1957	January 20, 1961
57		C. Douglas Dillon	New Jersey	January 21, 1961	April 1, 1965		John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)
							Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969)
58		Henry H. Fowler	Virginia	April 1, 1965	December 20, 1968
59		Joseph W. Barr	Indiana	December 21, 1968	January 20, 1969
60		David Kennedy	Utah	January 22, 1969	February 10, 1971		Richard Nixon (1969–1974)
61		John Connally	Texas	February 11, 1971	June 12, 1972
62		George Shultz	Illinois	June 12, 1972	May 8, 1974
63		William E. Simon	New Jersey	May 8, 1974	January 20, 1977
							Gerald Ford (1974–1977)
64		W. Michael Blumenthal	Michigan	January 23, 1977	August 4, 1979		Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
65		G. William Miller	Rhode Island	August 7, 1979	January 20, 1981
66		Donald Regan	New Jersey	January 22, 1981	February 1, 1985		Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)
67		James Baker	Texas	February 4, 1985	August 17, 1988
–		M. Peter McPherson Acting	Michigan	August 17, 1988	September 15, 1988
68		Nicholas F. Brady	New Jersey	September 15, 1988	January 17, 1993
							George H. W. Bush (1989–1993)
69		Lloyd Bentsen	Texas	January 20, 1993	December 22, 1994		Bill Clinton (1993–2001)
–		Frank N. Newman Acting	Massachusetts	December 22, 1994	January 11, 1995
70		Robert Rubin	New York	January 11, 1995	July 2, 1999
71		Lawrence Summers	Maryland	July 2, 1999	January 20, 2001
72		Paul H. O'Neill	Pennsylvania	January 20, 2001	December 31, 2002		George W. Bush (2001–2009)
–		Kenneth W. Dam Acting	Illinois	December 31, 2002	February 3, 2003
73		John W. Snow	Virginia	February 3, 2003	June 30, 2006
–		Robert M. Kimmitt Acting	Virginia	June 30, 2006	July 10, 2006
74		Henry Paulson	Illinois	July 10, 2006	January 20, 2009
–		Stuart A. Levey Acting	Ohio	January 20, 2009	January 26, 2009		Barack Obama (2009–2017)
75		Timothy Geithner	New York	January 26, 2009	January 25, 2013
–		Neal S. Wolin Acting	Illinois	January 25, 2013	February 28, 2013
76		Jack Lew	New York	February 28, 2013	January 20, 2017
–		Adam Szubin Acting	Washington, D.C.	January 20, 2017	February 13, 2017		Donald Trump (2017–2021)
77		Steven Mnuchin	California	February 13, 2017	January 20, 2021
–		Andy Baukol Acting	Virginia	January 20, 2021	January 26, 2021		Joe Biden (2021–2025)
78		Janet Yellen	California	January 26, 2021	January 20, 2025
–		David Lebryk Acting	Indiana	January 20, 2025	January 28, 2025		Donald Trump (2025–present)
79		Scott Bessent	South Carolina	January 28, 2025	Incumbent

Former flag of the secretary of the treasury, originating from the 19th century.

Succession

Presidential succession

The secretary of the treasury is fifth in the presidential line of succession, following the secretary of state and preceding the secretary of defense.

Succession within the department

On August 16, 2016, President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13735, which changed the order of succession for filling the treasury secretary's role when necessary. At any time when the secretary and the deputy secretary of the treasury have both died, resigned, or cannot serve as secretary for other reasons, the order designates which treasury officers are next in line to serve as acting secretary.

The order of succession is:

#	Office
1*	Under secretaries of the treasury
2	General Counsel of the Department of the Treasury
3*	Deputy under secretaries of the treasury and those assistant secretaries of the treasury appointed by the president by and with the consent of the Senate
4	Chief of Staff
5	Assistant Secretary for Management
6	Fiscal Assistant Secretary
7	Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Internal Revenue Service
8	Commissioner, Bureau of the Fiscal Service
9	Deputy Commissioner, Fiscal Accounting and Shared Services, Bureau of the Fiscal Service
10	Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, Internal Revenue Service

*In the order in which they shall have taken the oath of office as such officers.

Further reading

• Bamzai, Aditya. "Tenure of Office and the Treasury: The Constitution and Control over National Financial Policy, 1787 to 1867." George Washington Law Review 87 (2019): 1299-1387. online

• Katz, Bernard S., and C. Daniel Vencill, eds. "Biographical dictionary of the United States secretaries of the Treasury, 1789-1995." (Greenwood, 1996) 432 pp. The major scholarly resource.

Primary sources

• The treasury policy of fifty years: opinions of secretaries Hamilton, Dallas, Crawford, Rush, Taney and Woodbury, on the currency, public credit, &c (1874) online

• Secretary of the Treasury Annual Report online

External links

• Official website
• "Secretaries of the Treasury". History of the Treasury. United States Department of the Treasury. Retrieved April 9, 2006.