Congress Just Made It Harder for Congress To Block Trump's Tariffs
The cowardice of Congress will continue fueling the growth of executive power.
President Donald Trump's reckless tariff policies are threatening to drive the economy into a ditch—and Congress just made it harder to take away the keys.
In a near party-line vote on Tuesday afternoon, the House of Representatives blocked the most direct pathway for lawmakers to revoke the emergency executive powers Trump used last month to impose tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China. That change helps further cement executive control over trade policy and creates additional challenges for lawmakers seeking to claw back some control over tariff decisions.
"It speaks volumes that Republicans are sneaking this provision into a procedural measure hidden from the American people," said Reps. Don Beyer (D–Va.) and Suzan DelBene (D–Wash.) in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Fair warning: The details of what happened are a bit wonky.
Before passing a continuing resolution to keep the government open, the House had to pass a separate resolution setting the rules for the debate over the stopgap spending bill. This is a routine thing. On this occasion, however, Republican leaders slipped a provision into the rules resolution that makes a long-term change to how the House will operate.
"Each day for the remainder of the first session of the 119th Congress shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act with respect to a joint resolution terminating a national emergency declared by the President on February 1, 2025," is how the relevant portion of the rules package spells things out.
Yes, bizarrely, Congress can declare a day to not be a day because Congress can make whatever rules it wants to govern its own proceedings.
To understand the practical effect of that confusing language, you have to know a little bit about the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which is the law that Trump used to slap those new tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico in early February. Under the provisions of IEEPA, Congress is allowed to cancel any presidential action—and those efforts are "privileged," which means they can be brought directly to the floor without first going through the committee process. That's important because it means Congress can respond quickly if a president is perceived to be overstepping the bounds of his emergency powers (or, as in Trump's case, deploying them in ways that have nothing to do with any actual emergency).
So, the House's new rules say that individual lawmakers can't do that anymore. They cannot bring a privileged resolution under IEEPA to the House floor for the rest of this congressional session.
When this rules package was in front of the House Rules Committee on Monday, Democrats tried to strip out the provision that eliminates the IEEPA shortcut. That attempt was defeated in a party-line vote. On the House floor, all Republicans except Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) voted in favor of it. (Massie's office did not return a request to clarify whether he objected to the tariff provision or other aspects of the rules package.)
Beyer and DelBene are upset because they have been trying to do exactly that thing. They've introduced a pair of bills to restrict presidential tariff powers, one of which specifically targets the tariff powers under IEEPA. A group of Democrats, including Delbene, have also introduced a resolution to terminate Trump's tariffs imposed under IEEPA.
All of those proposals are long shots, at best, since they would have to pass with a veto-proof majority. Still, given that's the case, why do Republicans seem worried about blocking those privileged resolutions?
The answer is likely that House Republicans don't want to be put on the spot with an up-or-down vote that would force members to choose between repudiating Trump or supporting his unpopular and irrational tariffs. By forcing bills like Delbene's to go through the committee process, they can be smothered without forcing members into tough votes.
In the meantime, the message from House Republicans (minus Massie) is clear: Trump's executive power over tariffs is not to be challenged, even when there is clearly no emergency and when he's using those powers to jerk the economy around on a daily basis. The cowardice of Congress will continue fueling the growth of executive power.