House GOP Members Revolt Against Trump’s Tariffs

Defecting Republicans tanked a leadership-backed measure on Tuesday night that would have blocked future attempts to restrict President Donald Trump’s tariff authority.

The vote’s failure means House members can still advance legislation reining in Trump’s ability to declare national emergencies, his preferred legal method of imposing tariffs.

The rule vote Tuesday was an attempt to revive an effective prohibition on anti-tariff measures which expired at the end of January.

Specifically, the rule contained a provision to block members from advancing resolutions for “terminating a national emergency declared by the President” until July.

Trump has declared national emergencies under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as a legal justification for imposing tariffs. The Supreme Court is currently ruling on the legality of this use of a 1977 law.

The House voted 217-214 to reject the bill, with three Republicans defecting. Republican Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Kevin Kiley of California, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky sided with all Democrats in rejecting the rule. Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., did not vote.

“I don’t like putting the important work of the House on pause, but Congress needs to be able to debate on tariffs,” wrote Bacon on X after the vote. “Article I of the Constitution places authority over taxes and tariffs with Congress for a reason, but for too long, we have handed that authority to the executive branch. It’s time for Congress to reclaim that responsibility.”

Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is leading privileged House resolutions which would restrain the president’s tariff authority. The National Emergencies Act lays out a process for Congress to terminate presidentially declared emergencies through privileged resolutions.

Democrat House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., advised Democrats to vote against the rule to support Meek’s measures, which were set to “ripen” for a floor vote on Wednesday.

Due to the rejection of the rule, on Wednesday the House will vote on a resolution from Meeks terminating Trump’s national emergency declaration for drugs coming from Canada. If signed by the president, it would remove his ability to impose tariffs on Canada through IEEPA. However, without a veto-proof majority backing it, Trump could veto the resolution.

Republican Grumblings

Kiley, a moderate from a swing district, told reporters Tuesday morning that he intended to vote down the rule.

“It doesn’t really make sense to put something on the floor that’s not going to pass,” Kiley said. 

He continued, “my main issue here is this isn’t the purpose of a rule. A rule is meant to bring a bill to the floor, set the parameters for debate. It’s not meant to smuggle in unrelated provisions that expand the power of leadership at the expense of our members. So that’s the reason I oppose it.”

Republicans currently have a 218-214 majority in the House, meaning they can only afford one Republican defection on party-line votes if all Democrats unite in opposition.

Kiley was not the only Republican with qualms about the rule. Bacon, Massie, and Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana had expressed misgivings about the arrangement.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a hardline fiscal conservative who sits on the rules committee, was among the Republicans who voted to approve the rule on Monday.

“The Supreme Court’s going to rule [on tariffs] this summer, and so I have no problem with us giving some time here to sort that out getting through the summer, but we’ll see what happens today,” he told The Daily Signal. “Some people are raising questions, so we’ll see.”

Leadership Jockeying

The Daily Signal asked Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., on Tuesday morning to explain the rationale behind the rules committee’s decision. The rules committee is known as the “speaker’s committee” and its membership is hand-picked by Johnson.

“We talked about it frankly in our conference [meeting] this morning, and the rationale for this, for just extending this for a little bit longer to July, is to allow the Supreme Court to rule on the pending case,” Johnson told The Daily Signal. 

Johnson continued, “I think the sentiment is that we allow a little bit more runaway for this to be worked out between the executive branch and the judicial branch… so I expect the rule to pass.”

But around noon on Tuesday, leadership pushed back the vote on the rule to 8:30 PM, seven hours later than previously scheduled—possibly to buy time to rally support.

House rules committee chair Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., questioned by reporters Tuesday morning about “grumblings” over the rule, had reaffirmed her intention to advance it.

“Grumbling from our group? Are you kidding?” she said, sarcastically. “It will be on the floor.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters after the leadership press conference that some Republicans might still need convincing in order for the rule to pass.

“We’ve been talking to a number of members that have questions about pieces of that rule that we’re going to work through, but we’re moving forward,” said Scalise. 

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