House Rejects Effort To Shield Trump’s Tariffs From Congressional Scrutiny, Teeing Up Vote To Kill President’s Import Taxes on Canada

The House of Representatives late Tuesday failed to pass a resolution to shield President Trump’s tariffs from congressional scrutiny, which now guarantees the import taxes will be challenged on the House floor. On Wednesday, Democrats will call up a separate resolution, which has already passed the Senate, to roll back all of the tariffs on Canada — a measure which could see a significant number of moderate Republican defectors. Last year, Speaker Mike Johnson instituted a new rule in the House to bar his colleagues from calling up resolutions to block Mr. Trump’s tariffs. The rule was first adopted following Mr. Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff hike last April, which sent the stock market spiraling and treasury yields soaring. The Senate has already passed numerous resolutions to roll back Mr. Trump’s tariffs, though due to the rule change, Democrats were unable to call up resolutions in the House. The rule change extension failed in the House by a margin of 214 to 217, with three Republicans and all Democrats voting no. That rule was later extended in September, with an expiration date at the end of January. Mr. Johnson had hoped that the Tuesday vote would keep the current rule in place through the end of July. Mr. Johnson argued that because a lawsuit challenging the Liberation Day tariffs is now pending before the Supreme Court, Congress should stay out of the matter altogether. One of the no votes, Congressman Don Bacon, is retiring, and has long been critical of the impact tariffs have on his home state of Nebraska. In a statement Tuesday, he said Congress ought to be debating the merits of these import taxes. “Tariffs have been a ‘net negative’ for the economy and are a significant tax that American consumers, manufacturers, and farmers are paying,” Mr. Bacon said in a post on X. “Article I of the Constitution places authority over taxes and tariffs with Congress for a reason, but for too long, we have handed that authority to the executive branch.”Speaking to reporters at a press conference before the vote on Tuesday, Mr. Johnson said Congress should step aside and allow the Article II and Article III branches deal with the trade disputes. “The rationale for this — for just extending this for a little bit longer to July — is to allow the Supreme Court to rule on the pending case that everybody’s watching and waiting for,” Mr. Johnson said. “I think the sentiment is that we allow a little bit more runway for this to be worked out between the executive branch and the judicial branch.”The vote on Tuesday night was critical not only for blocking challenges to Mr. Trump’s tariffs, but it would have opened up the House floor to pass other bills for the rest of the week. After the vote failed on the House floor Tuesday, Republicans and Democrats went to the Rules Committee to strip the tariff language from their own resolution, meaning Mr. Trump will face a challenge on Wednesday morning. Democrats have introduced a resolution to roll back the tariffs on Canada. That measure will be debated Wednesday morning before a final vote, which could see several moderate and at-risk lawmakers jump ship. The high cost of living and the economy overall have weighted heavily on Mr. Trump’s popularity, and breaking with him during the Wednesday vote could be an easy political win for GOP lawmakers locked in tight races. Mr. Trump has said for months that it would be a travesty for the court to in any way restrict his tariff authority, which has been deployed more frequently and more erratically than during any modern presidency. He has even used his import taxing threats to push for the Brazilian government to drop charges against a conservative former president who was accused of trying to overturn his 2020 re-election loss and his plot to assassinate his successor. In a Truth Social post in November, Mr. Trump wrote that much of the nation’s economic growth this past year was “brought about by Strong Leadership and TARIFFS, without which we would be a poor and pathetic laughingstock again.”“Evil, American hating Forces are fighting us at the United States Supreme Court. Pray to God that our Nine Justices will show great wisdom, and do the right thing for America!” he added.

House Rejects Effort To Shield Trump’s Tariffs From Congressional Scrutiny, Teeing Up Vote To Kill President’s Import Taxes on Canada

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