On April 2, the Senate passed a joint resolution that would effectively block some of the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canada. The resolution would end the state of national emergency declared by President Trump on February 1, 2025 in order to justify imposing 25% tariffs – “duties,” another term for taxes on imported goods – on goods imported from Canada. The House of Representatives still must vote on and pass the resolution in order for it to take effect. However, the continuing resolution that extended federal government funding through September 2025 also contained language preventing the House from debating the president’s declaration of a national economic emergency.
Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the President can declare a of state of emergency due to an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the national security interests of the U.S. Under the state of emergency, the President is given broader authority to take actions to address that threat, such as imposing economic sanctions, without the explicit authorization of Congress. However, Congress still retains the authority to check the President’s actions under the IEEPA, and may terminate the national emergency by passing a joint resolution.
President Trump declared that the movement of undocumented immigrants and illegal drugs, including fentanyl, across the U.S.’s borders with Canada and Mexico justified declaring a national emergency under IEEPA. However, as we have documented previously, the way the Trump administration is wielding tariffs as economic cudgels have little to do with accomplishing national security and public safety goals, and are not likely to provide a meaningful boost to U.S. domestic manufacturing, as the administration claims.
Sens. Kaine (D-VA), Warner (D-VA), and Klobuchar (D-VA) cosponsored the resolution (S.J. Res. 37) to terminate the state of national emergency . It passed the Senate 51-48 with some measure of bipartisan support as 4 Republican Senators – Sens. Collins (R-ME), McConnell (R-KY), Murkowski (R-AK), and Paul (R-KY) – supported the resolution, and now moves to the House for consideration.
Speaker Mike Johnson, who controls what bills will come to the floor in the House, has manipulated the Congressional calendar in unprecedented ways to avoid having to vote on overturning these tariffs. In the short-term government spending bill passed last month to avert a government shutdown, House Republicans quietly inserted a technical change that would prevent any resolution on overturning tariffs from receiving a vote in 2025. In order to ensure a timely opportunity for Congressional oversight of the President’s actions, the IEEPA requires a process to fast-track any such resolutions to overturn a presidential emergency declaration, requiring action within a certain number of calendar days. But the House Republicans’ procedural change simply declares that “each day in the remainder of [the current] Congress shall not constitute a calendar day” for the purposes of the IEEPA. This maneuver will effectively allow many Republican members of Congress to either avoid having to take a likely unpopular vote in support of President Trump’s tariffs, or to take a vote against them and risk drawing the criticism of the Trump administration.