Secretary of the Treasury

Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, used the post to build the country's financial system almost from scratch, and the office has remained among the most powerful in the cabinet. The Secretary is nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate after hearings before the Finance Committee, and is fifth in the line of presidential succession. The Secretary's signature, along with the Treasurer's, is printed on every Federal Reserve note.

The Secretary is the President's principal economic adviser and spokesperson on economic policy, manages the government's finances and borrowing, oversees the IRS and the other Treasury bureaus, and represents the United States at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and meetings of finance ministers. By statute the Secretary chairs the Financial Stability Oversight Council, created in 2010 to watch for threats to the financial system, and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which can block foreign acquisitions of American companies on national security grounds.

In a crisis the Secretary becomes the central figure, as Henry Paulson was in 2008 when he asked Congress for 700 billion dollars to rescue the banks. During debt ceiling standoffs the Secretary determines and announces the date on which the government will run out of room to pay its bills, and must decide which extraordinary measures to use to delay it. The Secretary has also become a lead negotiator on trade and tariffs, a role that expanded sharply in 2025.