Republicans Block Ability to Rescind Emergencies Underlying Tariffs on Canada and Mexico

The president imposed the 25% tariffs on Mexican goods, 25% on most Canadian goods, and 10% tariffs on Canadian energy imports under the auspices of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. In order to impose tariffs under IEEPA, there has to be a declared emergency the president is using to justify the tariffs. Trump says the tariffs are due to illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling across the northern and southern borders. The IEEPA law allows any one member of Congress to demand a vote on terminating the emergency declared by the administration, and that demand must be honored first, with action in committee within 15 calendar days, and then, with a vote in the House or Senate within three calendar days unless a majority votes to table the measure.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., each the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs and Ways and Means committees, respectively, co-sponsored a resolution for such a vote to terminate the emergencies on Mexico and Canada March 6, setting the clock in motion (See 2503060012).

Meeks, in a hallway interview with International Trade Today at the Capitol, said he's never seen such language in his 26 years in the House. "Days are not days? Time is stopped," he asked incredulously. He said the gambit shows "how afraid Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans are to take a vote on what Donald Trump is doing with these tariffs, because, clearly, what he's doing is treating our allies as if they're our adversaries."

Meeks said if there had been a vote to rescind an emergency on either border, it might have gotten a majority in the chamber. "We know that was a farce in the first place. We know that he made that up. You know, try to do his tariffs. There was no emergency," he said, and noted that Trump has given many reasons for the tariffs that have nothing to do with fentanyl or immigration.

Meeks said Republicans are hearing from people in their districts affected by 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports. (Those actions were scaled back to only cover goods not claiming USMCA preferences, though the exemptions don't affect Section 232 tariffs).

"So, yes, I thought that we had a good chance ... you hear people whispering on the other side, already. They don't say it out loud, because many of them are afraid of King Trump, but they don't like these tariffs, and they know what it's really doing to the American economy."

Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said Republicans inserted the language "in the dark of the night," and said, "to me, it's pretty clear they're going to try and rig the game so that their tiny majority can somehow survive."

"I think there would be a majority in the House to slow this guy down" on Canadian tariffs, he said in a Capitol interview. "If you watched the reaction last Tuesday, the tariff section of the [Trump] speech [to Congress] got a very muted reaction, unlike almost everything else. I think there's tremendous heartburn on their side on this."

Neal, in an interview at the Capitol, also said he'd never seen such a mechanism to avoid a vote in his 36 years in Congress, and he called it an invented mechanism.

He said the fact that the Republicans inserted the language to avoid having a vote on the IEEPA emergencies at the border "tells you everything."

He said Republicans are prepared to let Trump "do whatever he wants to" on tariffs, using any national security rationale he puts forward.

"I'm disappointed, because I think the forfeiture of that [congressional] responsibility has set back trade, and it's being used to apply tariffs in a very arbitrary manner."

Neal said he believes tariff actions from the White House will get worse. "One thing that's consistent is, if it doesn't work, they stay with it," he said dryly.