Opponents of President Trump’s tariffs on Capitol Hill scored a significant victory and opened the door to what are expected to be multiple votes targeting the president’s signature economic policy.
First on Tuesday came a 217-214 vote to defeat a maneuver that would have kept tariff-related resolutions on hold until August.
Then on Wednesday, Canada was up first in a follow vote that saw an even wider margin of 219-211.
Six Republicans joined with nearly every Democrat to pass Joint Resolution 72, which seeks to terminate a national emergency that Trump declared last February imposing tariffs on Canada over the issue of illegal drugs.
That move came even as Trump openly threatened lawmakers who crossed him in a Truth Social post, writing that Republicans who oppose tariffs “will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time.”
Yet in the end, six Republicans did exactly that. Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Jeff Hurd of Colorado, Kevin Kiley of California, and Dan Newhouse of Washington state all voted yes.
The vote in the end is expected to be a largely symbolic one — Trump is able to veto any resolution if it ever reaches his desk — but it’s the first in many national emergency declarations Trump has issued in the last 13 months that are now expected to be under renewed scrutiny.
The Canada-specific move targets one of Trump’s most controversial orders, as there is thin evidence of a “public health crisis in the United States” as a result of drugs coming in from Canada.
Fact checkers have been noting for over a year that the amount of fentanyl seized at the US/Canada border is minuscule compared to the southern border.
A recent Congressional Research Service report offered a similar conclusion that “at present, most U.S.-destined illicit fentanyl appears to be produced clandestinely in Mexico, using chemical precursors from China.”
Trump has also imposed fentanyl-specific tariffs on Mexico and China, but the president has steadfastly maintained that Canadian ones are needed as well.
Trump has also lobbed plenty of threats at America’s northern neighbor, from suggesting Canada should be annexed by the United States to, just this week, threatening to shut down a bridge between the two nations.
The back-and-forth around tariffs on Capitol Hill also comes as Washington is closely watching for a Supreme Court ruling on the president’s legal authority to unilaterally set tariffs after declaring an emergency.
That ruling surrounds a law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977, with a decision there expected in the coming months.
The Canada focus from Capitol Hill also comes as President Trump is said to be considering exiting the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a North American free trade pact, according to multiple reports.
That agreement is set to be renegotiated this summer, and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer testified to Congress late last year that “the shortcomings [of the agreement] are such that a rubber-stamp of the Agreement is not in the national interest.”
Votes that could have midterm election consequences
This week’s vote could be followed by another vote in the Senate, where opponents of Trump’s tariffs also have a bipartisan majority — as well as methods to force a vote over the objections of leadership.
The Senate has already voted multiple times against Trump’s tariffs, with some Republicans there also showing a willingness to break with the president.
A similar resolution on Canadian tariffs even passed the upper chamber last year, with four Republicans crossing party lines.
If this new resolution is ever sent to the president’s desk, a veto appears likely, but it would nonetheless be a notable critique from Trump’s own party, which has otherwise allowed him to impose tariffs with little consultation.
Bipartisan opposition to Trump’s tariffs was also in evidence Tuesday night in the House when three Republicans crossed party lines to prevent GOP leadership from blocking a vote on these types of resolutions.
Republican Reps. Massie, Bacon, and Kiley joined with every Democrat to reject a rule that was being pushed by House Speaker Mike Johnson to keep tariff-related resolutions off the floor until August.
“Tariffs have been a ‘net negative’ for the economy and are a significant tax that American consumers, manufacturers, and farmers are paying,” Bacon said in a statement, adding that tariffs are Congress’s prerogative and “It’s time for Congress to reclaim that responsibility.”
Even after Wednesday’s scheduled vote, a series of Democrat-led votes are expected to continue and could also be a significant midterm-year cudgel for the party against vulnerable Republicans and the White House as public sentiment toward tariffs remains low.
“I hope that more of our colleagues will join [the three Republicans who crossed Trump Tuesday] as we move on to consider measures to terminate tariffs on Canada and other key allies and trading partners,” said Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat.
