With health care costs soaring, federal forces patrolling the nation’s capital, and interest rates sky high, one congressman is calling for a bipartisan bill to address what he sees as a major concern of American consumers — high coffee prices.

Congressman Ro Khanna says President Trump’s tariffs on numerous nations amount to a hefty tax on Americans, especially those who enjoy a cup of java from time to time.

“I will be introducing bipartisan legislation to repeal tariffs on coffee,” the California Democrat wrote on X. “We produce less than 1%, and these tariffs on Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, & Columbia are a 15-20% tax on Americans at the start of their day. Anyone who has a coffee cup always in hand hates this tax,” he said.

On July 12, Mr. Trump announced a 50 percent tariff on selected Brazilian imports, effective August 1. The president also put 10 percent or higher tariffs on goods from more than 60 countries and the European Union on August 7.

Coffee prices have indeed been on the rise. According to a June report from the United States Bureau of Labor, coffee prices have risen 14.8 percent since June 2024. The average retail price for a pound of ground coffee hit $8.41 this month, CNBC reports. On the other hand, coffee futures were steady this week.

But coffee prices began rising long before Mr. Trump’s tariffs. There have been man-made problems as well as weather issues, according to a co-founder and the head coffee roaster at Oceana Coffee in Florida, Scott Angelo.

“That triggered a lower volume output for Brazil, and whenever Brazil has an issue, the coffee price in the rest of the world goes crazy, because they’re one of the biggest producers,” Mr. Angelo told the Palm Beach Post.

Brazil has threatened to impose its own retaliatory tariffs on American products, but the government also took immediate steps to help exporters, offering credit lines and buying up excess supply to keep them solvent and able to produce more coffee.

Prices have also been rising in Vietnam and Indonesia, but so far exporters say it’s not because of American tariffs but high global demand. “Amid global gains, the domestic market situation remained the same as the past few weeks,” a trader based in the coffee belt told one news outlet.

One economist says with prices rising, Americans may soon be drinking more coffee at home before they head to work.

“Consumers are going to continue to have their coffee, it’s just going to be a question of where they’re ultimately going to do so,” a senior economist of food and beverage at CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange research division, Billy Roberts, told Yahoo Finance.