Rep. Suzan DelBene on Tariffs, Trade Policy, and Congressional Authority
"I've been very vocal about congressional authority under a Democratic president or now under a Republican president," the Washington state congresswoman tells Reason.
The tariffs that President Donald Trump announced on April 2 on virtually all imports would cost about $3.1 trillion over the next 10 years—and would be a $2,100 tax increase per household in 2025 alone by the Tax Foundation's estimate—making them one of the largest tax increases in American history if they ever take full effect.
But the Constitution makes it clear that only Congress has the power to raise taxes, and Rep. Suzan DelBene (D–Wash.) believes Trump is overstepping his authority. In February, she introduced a bill prohibiting presidents from using emergency economic powers to levy tariffs without congressional consent. That might not stop Trump from trying—but it would force Republican lawmakers to make an uncomfortable choice: defy Trump or give approval to a huge tax hike on businesses and consumers.
DelBene sat down with Reason's Eric Boehm in March to discuss the impact of tariffs and the role Congress should play in setting trade policy.
Q: Your district is not far from the Canadian border. What are you hearing from your constituents about these tariffs?
A: When [Trump] has tariffs like this in place, he's actually impacting domestic manufacturers who need pieces of their product to come from Canada or Mexico. This impacts auto manufacturers. It impacts aerospace, which is big in my district. And sometimes folks are selling their parts to Canada or Mexico as part of production that might be happening there. So it's incredibly disruptive, and that's just manufacturing.
And I might point out it's easy to break things. It's easy to take markets away. It's hard to get it back. And so this idea that you could just turn these on and turn them off and nothing changes is absolutely untrue. Folks will take years and years to try to recover market access. And just the threat of tariffs has already impacted U.S. businesses' ability to export to these countries.
Q: Trump has invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to levy those tariffs. Is there an emergency that requires this action?
A: First of all, these are allies. These are not hostile foreign nations. And we have a trade agreement with both [Mexico and Canada]. So I have legislation to make it clear that Congress actually has the authority when it comes to tariffs and trade and taxes—and that if the president, any president, wants to put in place such broad tariffs, they have to come to Congress and get approval from Congress. That's what the Constitution says.
And again, these are our allies. There's a trade agreement, and it has a dispute settlement [clause]. So, if you think there's something that needs to be addressed, you should be using the existing trade agreement that's in place to address any disputes there might be. He has not done that. He went straight to declaring these sweeping tariffs that are going to be devastating economically for families across the country.
Q: There has been a trend, going back decades, of Congress off-loading authority over trade to the executive branch. Do you think that was a mistake?
A: I do. I think Congress has to make sure it exerts this authority. We need it to be clear in statute. And this isn't a statement about any particular administration. When we talk about taxes and whether or not we raise or lower taxes, Congress has authority there. Congress is an independent, coequal branch of government, and Congress needs to say, "These are not things that the executive branch gets to decide unilaterally."
Q: Do you think Democrats should be more skeptical of executive power?
A: Absolutely. I've been very vocal about congressional authority under a Democratic president or now under a Republican president. And frankly, there are a lot of Republican members of the House who were very vocal under President [Joe] Biden about how important it was for Congress to have a say. And they're silent now. So that's where the hypocrisy is.
This interview has been condensed and edited for style and clarity.
