diff --git a/tests/streaming/action/test_external_actions_requester.py b/tests/streaming/action/test_external_actions_requester.py
index c9d2f8b35..626d5db93 100644
--- a/tests/streaming/action/test_external_actions_requester.py
+++ b/tests/streaming/action/test_external_actions_requester.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 import os
 from typing import Any, Callable, Dict
 
+import httpx
 import pytest
 from httpx import Request, Response
 from pytest_httpx import HTTPXMock
@@ -65,6 +66,7 @@ async def test_send_request_responses(
         JSON_SCHEMA,
         base64.b64encode(os.urandom(32)).decode(),
         additional_payload_values={"call_id": "call_id"},
+        transport=httpx.AsyncHTTPTransport(retries=3, verify=True),
     )
 
     assert response.success is expected_success
diff --git a/vocode/streaming/action/external_actions_requester.py b/vocode/streaming/action/external_actions_requester.py
index ff82911bd..658192e7b 100644
--- a/vocode/streaming/action/external_actions_requester.py
+++ b/vocode/streaming/action/external_actions_requester.py
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ async def send_request(
         payload: Dict[str, Any],
         signature_secret: str,
         additional_payload_values: Dict[str, Any] = {},
+        transport: httpx.AsyncHTTPTransport = httpx.AsyncHTTPTransport(retries=2),
     ) -> ExternalActionResponse:
         encoded_payload = json.dumps({"payload": payload} | additional_payload_values).encode(
             "utf-8"
@@ -63,7 +64,6 @@ async def send_request(
             "x-vocode-signature": self._encode_payload(encoded_payload, signature_secret),
         }
 
-        transport = httpx.AsyncHTTPTransport(retries=2)
         async with httpx.AsyncClient(
             headers=headers,
             transport=transport,