House Democrats Will Force Vote To Block Trump’s Global 10 Percent Tariff After Senate Rebukes President
Four GOP senators joined with all Democrats on Wednesday to repeal the basis for Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Canada.

After the Republican-controlled Senate voted to revoke President Trump’s tariffs on Canada, House Democrats will soon force their GOP colleagues to go on the record with respect to the new round of tariffs introduced Wednesday. The vote could be detrimental for vulnerable Republican lawmakers next year if the economic uncertainty over the tariffs does not cease.
On Wednesday night, four Senate Republicans voted with every Democrat to support a resolution that would repeal Mr. Trump’s national emergency declaration that allowed him to implement his tariffs on Canada.
Senator Murkowski and Senator Collins said the new import tax would be devastating for their state’s economies, considering they border Canada. Senator McConnell and Senator Paul took the position that the tariffs should be repealed because it would harm American consumers writ large.
“The Constitution says taxes originate in the House,” Mr. Paul said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday. “Can the president raise taxes without the approval of Congress? Tariffs are taxes, and that’s what he intends to do.”
Mr. Paul’s remarks, along with the Senate’s rebuke Wednesday night, suggest the prospect of a growing pushback in the Congress against the president’s tariff agenda.
Unfortunately for Senate Republicans who hope to repeal those Canada tariffs, Congress has in recent decades largely ceded its constitutionally-granted authority over the levies, giving the president wide leeway to impose tariffs if he or she declares an economic emergency.
A short-term funding bill through the end of the year — which was passed by Congress in March — included language that bars the House from challenging Mr. Trump’s tariff authority relating to Canada and Mexico.
Yet because Mr. Trump declared a second emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act on Wednesday, House Democrats will have the chance to force a vote on that separate emergency declaration, which is not subject to the previous funding bill.
Shortly after Mr. Trump instituted his 10 percent across-the-board tariffs on Wednesday evening, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Gregory Meeks, said he would introduce a resolution repealing that emergency declaration, thus making the new tariffs moot.
The resolution will be privileged, meaning that it will receive a vote on the House floor regardless of Republican leaders’ objections.
“Trump just hit Americans with the largest regressive tax hike in modern history — massive tariffs on all imports,” Mr. Meeks said in a statement on Wednesday. “His reckless policies are not only crashing markets, they will disproportionately hurt working families.”
“I’ll soon introduce a privileged resolution to force a vote on ending the made up national emergency Trump is using to justify these taxes,” the Queens congressman added. “Republicans can’t keep ducking this — it’s time they show whether they support the economic pain Trump is inflicting on their constituents.”
It could be an extraordinarily difficult vote for House Republicans, many of whom have been skeptical of a broad-based imposition of tariffs.
Markets reacted negatively to Mr. Trump’s 10 percent global import tariff on Wednesday, which was coupled with country-specific tariffs that the White House says was calculated based on an individual nation’s trade barriers.
“I know our agriculture [sector] in Nebraska — we’re a big export state — We’ve already heard from some of our beef processors … that they’re losing some market share in Europe,” Congressman Don Bacon, whose Omaha-based House district went for Vice President Harris last year, told reporters this week. “It’s concerning.”