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Aaron Fritschner
Aaron Fritschner

Trump just opened up a procedural avenue for Dems to force votes on the tariffs he announced yesterday. A quick explainer- Each Trump tariff uses specific legal authorities. Sector-specific tariffs (eg steel and aluminum) use Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. Tariffs on all imports from X country use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which requires a declaration of a national emergency. Trump's tariffs on nearly all imports from Canada, Mexico, and China were treated as one event but in the actual text they are all predicated on separate, individual declarations of national emergency under the National Emergencies Act:

Important to remember: tariffs are taxes on imported goods. The Constitution gives total control over taxation and trade regulation to Congress. The authorities Trump is using are limited delegations of that power to the president that Congress passed in previous decades. He's clearly abusing them. But Congress limited those presidential authorities in key ways. Trump used IEEPA for across-the-board tariffs on countries, which required declaration of national emergency. Congress gave itself the ability to terminate such emergencies with an expedited floor process: bsky.app

Aaron Fritschner
Aaron Fritschner03/11/25

To exercise IEEPA tariff authorities, the President must first declare a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act (NEA). BUT the NEA protected Congress' powers by creating a process to terminate a declaration of emergency, with fast-tracked floor consideration (50 US Code § 1622):

When Trump activated his tariffs on Canada a month ago, Democrats in both chambers quickly filed resolutions to terminate the emergency declaration he used to do it. Again- this gets fast-tracked votes in both chambers. That's what the Senate passed last night, with four Republican crossover votes:

But Republicans snuck a provision to disarm this privilege in the House into the CR rule last month and passed it. So the Senate-passed resolution doesn't have privilege in the House. NOTE: his does NOT kill it- a vote can still be forced via discharge petition (STAY TUNED) bsky.app

Aaron Fritschner
Aaron Fritschner03/11/25

Republicans snuck a measure to essentially turn that clock off into the vote on the *rule* for the government funding bill (the CR), not the bill itself. This is a procedural vote to bring the CR up for a vote (which will happen in a couple hours). Via @ringwiss.bsky.social: bsky.app

Privilege for these anti-tariff resolutions works by requiring votes within a fixed number of legislative days. Republicans disarmed that mechanism in the House by suspending the legislative clock for resolutions targeting Trump's national emergencies DECLARED ON FEBRUARY 1 (Canada, Mexico, China)

BUT! The tariffs Trump imposed yesterday on nearly every country necessitated a NEW declaration of national emergency, dated April 2. Republicans' jiggery-pokery with the calendar will NOT apply, a new resolution to terminate THIS emergency now has privilege in both chambers (again, STAY TUNED)

The hard part: if Dems pursue this (I repeat: STAY TUNED) Republicans will try to disarm it again. Last time the public didn't hear about that because the R's snuck it into a procedural vote while the press were fixated on the CR. This time people need to know the stakes of that vote when it comes "Stay Tuned" bsky.app

House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats
House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats04/03/25

RM @meeks.house.gov today announced plans to introduce a discharge petition to force a vote to terminate President Trump’s tariffs on Canada.

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Congressional Research Service: On February 1, 2025, President Donald J. Trump announced that he was imposing tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China and cited the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) (50 U.S.C. §§1701 et seq.) as his underlying authority. IEEPA may be used “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States,” if the President declares a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act (NEA) (50 U.S.C. §§1601 et seq.) with respect to that threat. IEEPA authorizes the president to “regulate” a variety of international economic transactions, including imports. Whether “regulate” includes the power to impose a tariff, and the scale and scope of what tariffs might be authorized under the statute, are open questions as no President has previously used IEEPA to impose tariffs. Although IEEPA has never previously been used to impose tariffs, in 1971 former President Richard M. Nixon used the similarly worded Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (TWEA), upon which IEEPA was based, to impose a 10% tariff on all imports into the United States in response to a monetary crisis.
US Code: (b) Termination review of national emergencies by Congress Not later than six months after a national emergency is declared, and not later than the end of each six-month period thereafter that such emergency continues, each House of Congress shall meet to consider a vote on a joint resolution to determine whether that emergency shall be terminated. (c) Joint resolution; referral to Congressional committees; conference committee in event of disagreement; filing of report; termination procedure deemed part of rules of House and Senate (1) A joint resolution to terminate a national emergency declared by the President shall be referred to the appropriate committee of the House of Representatives or the Senate, as the case may be. One such joint resolution shall be reported out by such committee together with its recommendations within fifteen calendar days after the day on which such resolution is referred to such committee, unless such House shall otherwise determine by the yeas and nays. (2) Any joint resolution so reported shall become the pending business of the House in question (in the case of the Senate the time for debate shall be equally divided between the proponents and the opponents) and shall be voted on within three calendar days after the day on which such resolution is reported, unless such House shall otherwise determine by yeas and nays. (3) Such a joint resolution passed by one House shall be referred to the appropriate committee of the other House and shall be reported out by such committee together with its recommendations within fifteen calendar days after the day on which such resolution is referred to such committee and shall thereupon become the pending business of such House and shall be voted upon within three calendar days after the day on which such resolution is reported, unless such House shall otherwise determine by yeas and nays.

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