Ranking Members Shaheen, Warren Press Trump Administration for Transparency on $20 Billion Argentina Bailout

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, sent a letter to Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio pressing the Trump Administration for answers and transparency regarding its use of the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) to support Argentina's financial markets.

In the letter, Ranking Members Shaheen and Warren underscore their ongoing concerns with the Trump Administration's decision to commit more than $20 billion in taxpayer-backed resources to Argentina without providing Congress or the public with meaningful details about the terms, conditions or safeguards attached to the bailout. Despite repeated requests, the Treasury Department has failed to share the terms of the agreement with Congress, as required by law, and has recently refused to release it publicly, citing national security concerns-a departure from past precedent.

"Americans rightfully have questions about how more than $20 billion of their tax dollars are being used to prop up the economy of a foreign country and its global investors, particularly at a moment when so many families are suffering from an increasingly high cost of living," wrote the Senators.

The Senators note that while the Treasury Department has provided limited responses to prior inquiries, those responses did not include terms of the $20 billion swap line with Argentina's central bank or details on related ESF transactions, leaving serious questions about oversight, repayment and the protection of taxpayer funds unanswered. They further emphasize that the Treasury and State Departments are required under the Gold Reserve Act and the Case-Zablocki Act to provide Congress with full information about ESF operations and international agreements. The Trump Administration has yet to meet these obligations.

"The Trump Administration's lack of meaningful transparency regarding its use of the Exchange Stabilization Fund raises critical questions," the Senators continued. "The American public deserves answers."

This letter follows an October letter sent by Ranking Member Shaheen to the Secretaries, outlining her initial concerns of this agreement and requesting the Trump Administration provide a briefing to Congress on this issue. To date, the Treasury Department has yet to provide a briefing to Members of Congress.

Full text of the letter is available HERE and provided below.

Dear Secretary Bessent and Secretary Rubio:

We continue to have deep concerns about the Administration's use of the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) to bail out Argentina's financial markets, as we have each expressed to you, Secretary Bessent, in prior letters. To date, despite our requests, the Treasury Department has not shared meaningful details of this bailout, including the terms and conditions of the $20 billion swap line (Exchange Stabilization Agreement) with the Central Bank of Argentina, to either of our respective Committees. This lack of transparency is concerning-and is only bolstered by the Treasury Department's recent refusal to release the Exchange Stabilization Agreement publicly, claiming that the agreement must be withheld due to national security concerns, a departure from past uses of the ESF.^[1]

Though Secretary Bessent did send some responses to our recent letters about Treasury's use of the ESF, the responses failed to provide any specific terms or conditions of the agreement or details on related ESF transactions to support Argentina's financial markets, leaving serious questions over the use of significant taxpayer resources. Americans rightfully have questions about how more than $20 billion of their tax dollars are being used to prop up the economy of a foreign country and its global investors, particularly at a moment when so many families are suffering from an increasingly high cost of living.

The Treasury Department has historically shared information regarding the ESF with the public-and has legal obligations to share information with Congress. We note that Treasury is obligated to submit details of the Exchange Stabilization Agreement and related ESF transactions to our respective committees pursuant to the Gold Reserve Act, which requires detailed reporting on the ESF's operations,[2] and pursuant to the Case-Zablocki Act, which governs the submission of international agreements and certain non-binding agreements.[3] The information submitted to Congress thus far does not satisfy these statutory requirements. On November 30, 2025, the Department released only some minor details regarding the deal, noting that in October, for example, the Department "sold [Special Drawing Rights] 641 million to Argentina in exchange for $872 million"[4], entered into "an exchange stabilization agreement…with the Central Bank of Argentina…for $20 billion" and "executed a swap transaction whereby the BCRA exchanged pesos for $2.5 billion."[5] Nor has the State Department provided the agreement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pursuant to the Case-Zablocki Act.

To date, the Administration has also not briefed Congress in a classified or unclassified manner on the details of this agreement. As ranking members of the relevant committees of jurisdiction, we expect the Administration to promptly comply with its obligations to provide the Exchange Stabilization Agreement and details on related ESF transactions to our respective Committees and brief us on the basic details of the bailout-which we each sought in prior letters on October 15 and September 22.

Furthermore, the Trump Administration's lack of meaningful transparency regarding the details of its use of the ESF to support Argentina raises critical questions.[6] The American public deserves answers, and we urge you to respond to the following as soon as possible, and no later than January 9, 2026:

1) How does the Treasury Department's use of the ESF in Argentina advance U.S. national interests at a time when so many households are struggling?

2) Provide a copy of the existing exchange stabilization agreement between the Treasury Department and the Central Bank of Argentina that includes the:

a) Terms and conditions of the $20 billion swap transaction;

b) What, if any, reforms Argentina agreed to in exchange for the agreement; and

c) What, if any, safeguards are in place under the agreement to ensure repayment of American taxpayers' funds.

3) Provide transaction details regarding direct peso purchases executed by the ESF in October 2025.

4) Provide transaction details regarding the Special Drawing Rights sold to Argentina in October 2025.

These answers should be provided in an unclassified format. If the Administration maintains that there are details which are appropriately subject to classification, then we urge you to provide the basis for such classification and an accompanying classified briefing on those points. Barring that, we fail to see why this information should be withheld from the American public.

Footnotes:

[1] Politico Pro, "Trump's $20B economic stabilization deal with Argentina is classified, Treasury says," Michael Stratford, November 11, 2025, https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025/11/trumps-20b-economic-stabilization-deal-with-argentina-is-classified-treasury-says-00647340. Treasury has regularly informed the public about the ESF through numerous annual, quarterly, weekly, and even daily reports and has publicly affirmed that "ESF loan agreements are transmitted to Congress under the Case Act, within 60 days of their entry into force." See, e.g., U.S. Department of the Treasury, "ESF Reports" https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/international/exchange-stabilization-fund/esf-reports.

[2] 31 U.S.C. § 5302(c)(1).

[3] 1 U.S.C. § 112b.

[4] Department of the Treasury, "Department of the Treasury Exchange Stabilization Fund Balance Sheet (as of October 31, 2025)," November 30, 2025, https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/206/ESF-October-2025-FS_Trunc_Notes.pdf.

[5] Id.

[6] BBC, "The US bet big with Argentina bailout - is it paying off?," Natalie Sherman, October 30, 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g3mdvle78o.

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